212 Aster History; MAcER 
general inguinal troubles, for a film over the eyes, and for the bite 
of a dog, 
Herba canis morsus superaddita cum sale curat. 
Macer begins his Barrocus with its use for rubbing over bee- 
hives, which he extends beyond that which Pliny had written, 
Macer supplying a recommendation to add milk, apparently from 
Calabrian folklore; Pliny’s parallel passage, 21, 86, is as follows: 
‘If the bee-hives are rubbed all over with melissophyllum or 
melittaena, the bees will never desert them ; for there is no flower 
in which they take greater delight. If branches of this plant are 
used, the bees may be kept within bounds without any difficulty. 
It is an excellent remedy also for the stings of bees, wasps and 
other insects, as also for wounds made by spiders and scorpions.” 
Macer’s treatment of the relation of the plant to bees is as fol- 
lows, italicizing Macer’s added matter : 
“I, Barrocus. The herbs which the Greeks called Melliso- 
phyllon,* our people commonly call Barrocus ; it is considered above 
all herbs the most delightful to bees. Nor do they seem to take 
more pleasure in the flower of any other plant. If you anoint the 
bee-hives (vasa apium) all over with a preparation rubbed up from 
its leaves, the bees will not desert the hive ; avd you will accom- 
plish this still better if you mix milk with it; with such ointment the 
bee-farmers retain their swarms. It is an immediate relief to 
stings of bees, if the sting is covered instantly with the rubbed-up herb ; 
and in this way too, whom the wasp hurts or the spider, it cures.” 
The new name Barrocus, here used for the first time, is listed 
by Matthaeus Sylvaticus in his dictionary in the form Barocho as 
a name in southern Italy for Melissophyllon. It was evidently a 
strange name to the scribes writing the MSS. of Macer, whose 
variants include (in the accusative) barocam, barrachum, baratam 
and boracum, some early editions printing it boragam and borra- 
gam, as if confusing it with dorage, name beginning in the middle 
ages for the rough plant still known as borage, believed to be 
from mediaeval Latin borra, rough. That origin of Barocho, 
however, as name of éa/m, would have no appropriateness, nor 1 
much help obtainable from the only available genuine Latin root 
foirltiiaialiancace Re a ag 
* Melisophilos in one MS.; and many slighter variants, 
