304 Aster History; PANDECTARIUS 
as a great authority. He owed, however, his special debt as an 
author to Simon Genuensis, whose dictionary had served as pioneer 
where his was to follow. Simon was, at least as claimed by 
Meyer, the superior in insight and in critical talent. Matthaeus 
Sylvaticus, remarks Lacroix, though having many fine plants in 
his Salernitan garden, could not get their botanical names right. 
Sprengel chides him for confusing /uu/a with Laserpitium; how- 
ever, men of better opportunities were still confusing /aula Helen- 
tum with Aster 200 years later. Sprengel blames him again for 
thinking that Rudia tinctorium was the same as /satis ; but 200 
years later, men were still confusing Radia with Aster (because of 
its radiate leaves, like stars) though without even the excuse of 
common properties as in /safis. Fuchs reproves him with regard 
to Aster itself, claiming that when he was describing the A/ibium of 
the Arabs and identifying it as Eryngium,* he was really describ- 
ing Aster Atticus without knowing it. This passage forms the 
34th and last chapter of Fuchs’ -Annotationes, 1531, his first work, 
printed in “ De vera cognitio” of Brunfels, p. 152, aS an appendix 
to tom. ii, of Brunfels’ Vovi Herbarii. Fuchs’ remarks about Ad- 
bium as synonym for /uguinaria or Aster are as follows: 
‘De Alibio, Autor Pandectarum in litera A, Adbinm falsissime 
pro Eryngio interpretatur, quando sit ea verus herba, quem Ingut- 
naria Latinis dicis. Id quod in hunc modum ostendimus. Cum 
Arabibus, Aliben vel Alhaliben + sit inguen, aut abscessus qui fit in 
inguinibus, hoc quod etiam Pandectarius fatetur, consequit neces- 
sario, ut Alibium sit Inguinaria herba; quae id nominis fortita est, 
quod prosit inguinibus.”’ 
dence, was Matthaeus Sylvaticus.’’ This and three other undated editions were in oe 
ands of Meyer. The first dated edition was of Naples, 1474, as ‘‘ Liber @ abi 
Editions 1498 and onward were lar. argely blended with the C/avis of Simon i 
— arrangement is alphabetical, naming the plant in Arabic, Greek and Latin, 
with a description, from Diose oscorides, Pliny, Serapion, etc., then with the properties : 
a lastly the enumeration of diseases for which the plant is used. 
* Eryngium or Iringo was in ancient and mediaeval lore the center 0 
Brunfels (tom. iii, p. — calls attention to the belief that Phaon secured the favor © 
Sappho because he carried this magic root about him. cal 
TA little after tec introduction of Arab medicine the word A/ipla for 0 mee 
preparation came into use as — for a similar compound had been used among 1 . 
Greeks; Petrus of Apone writes of an Alipta confita, 1290, and the 8 
known as Alphita, of that Rasen has Alipta muscata. 
follow- 
f much fable; 
