354 Aster History; DorsSTENIUS 
Annotatio ; derived from ‘‘Galen, Aegineta, Dioscorides, Pli- 
nius,” and Marcellus Vergilius. 
Descriptio ; quotes Dioscorides, including the appearance as a 
‘“‘phantasma,”’ adding “ Vergilius Marcellus hoc confutat atque 
reijcit, tanqi superstitiosum aliquid, quia in antiquissimis Graecis 
Latinisque autoribus non inveniatur. 
‘Quidam etiam Bubonion a bufonibus, hoc est, venenosis 
vermibus dictum volunt, quod non solum ineptum ac falsum est, 
sed etiam contra omnem autoritatem veterum, fingunt enim quod 
bufonibus Inguinalis magna sit medicina, quando in pugna cum 
araneis habita victi fuerint et vulnerati atque icti ab eis. Et 
quod bufones aliaque animalcula venenosa huius herbe gratia in 
locis petrosis se contineant, atque ea herba se reficiant atq sanent. 
“Vires (good for burning stomach, for the eyes, for buboes, 
hemorrhoids, in labor,—‘ quod in flore ejus purpurascit, —and in 
epilepsy): pluck it with the left hand; ‘caduco morbo laboranti- 
bus opitulatur, ut Apuleius testatur.’”’ 
“Si baccas Asterii, id est inguinalis dederis manducare Luna 
decrescente, quum erit signum Virginis, et ipsam herbam laborans 
habeat in collo suspensam, remediabitur. 
“De iringo”’ follows as the next chapter. 
Dorstenius story of the Aster’s usefulness to toads and other 
animaleula venenosa was doubtless one of the reasons leading 
Meyer [4: 336] to term his Botanicon ‘a puerile, uncritical com- 
pilation.” But his 284 figures supplied by the printing house of 
Egenolph are of great value for so early a date as 1540. Though 
he gives figures for most plants mentioned, and in particular for 
those discussed immediately before and after Aster, for Aster itself 
he gives none. LEgenolph’s house must have had a figure of Aster 
in stock, that made from Eryngium and used in the Gart der 
Gesundheit (issued by Egenolph 1533 and 1536 in Rhodion’s re- 
vision); but Fuchs in 1531 had discriminated Aster from Eryn- 
gium, and Dorstenius,—or Egenolph,—had discernment enough 
not to repeat the error. In fact, he seems to have perceived that 
he did not know what native plant was true representative of 
the ancient Aster Atticus. He forebore to mention any native 
equivalent in his chapter on the subject. The first step toward 
true knowledge is the perception of ignorance. Dorstenius had 
