Pe) ee a eae © NG 2 eg Be nn el 
ANGUILLARA’S ASTER-CHAPTER 373 
“T have marvelled much, how it can be that learned men, and 
men who have made profession of interpreting Dioscorides, have 
oftentimes made error in interpreting, and still do so, in the 
chapter concerning Aster Atticus. Some think that the words 
TVOGVOODY 7 py hevov (z. e., Aster, that has blossoms either purple or 
yellow), ought not to be taken disjunctively, but that instead Dios- 
corides meant to include two distinct things [plants] in one. But 
how much they deceive themselves can be made clear in every 
particular, For the true Aster Atticus grows in many parts of Italy, 
with five little sharp-pointed leaves, placed in order in the manner of 
a star, and in the middle of which it makes its flower. The flower 
has a yellow color, like the flower-head of the chamomile, or else 
has a purple color. It makes its stalks higher one than another, 
woody and hairy, with leaves similar to the olive, but roughish, 
and somewhat pilose. It is called in many places in Italy, Filius- 
ante-patrem, among the herbalists, and in Greece in the Pelopon- 
nesus and in Zante they call it dwdexapericec.”” 
Anguillara’ s Filius-ante-patrem.—Anguillara, who left many of 
his plant-names in vernacular form, may have intended Padlenis by 
his Filius-ante-patrem. Such was the conclusion of Caspar Bauhin, 
but not that of Sprengel, who remarks “‘ What plant Anguillara 
means I cannot conceive.” 
That Anguillara intended the Pad/enis spinosa of Cassini may 
be claimed on the following grounds : 
1. Pallenis is common in Italy and Greece, and the Mediter- 
Fanean region in general; 2. It has often occasioned remark for its 
star-like flower-heads ; see Lobel; 3. It has stems and leaves hir- 
Sute; 4. Pallenis, although currently described as with golden- 
yellow rays, and so figured by Sibthorp, was said by Lobel and 
Pena in 1 570 to have “leaflets of the flowers which grow purplish 
underneath, in certain localities; though not purplish within as in 
Aster Tripolium,” oe 
5. Pallenis spinosa Cassini, though, known as Oculus Christi at 
Montpellier (name current there in 1550, fide Clusius, Lobel, etc.) 
in Anguillara’s time, may have been also then known as /ilius- 
 Mnte-patrem in Italy. This name, Son-before-the-father, would be 
‘ppropriate to Pallenis, which is remarkable for its frequent length- 
ening of lateral flower-stalks far above the older more central 
