ASTER AMEL'LUS. 
ITALIAN STARWORT. 
Order. 
POLYGAMIA SCPERFLCA. 
Natural Order. 
CORYMBIFER.E. 
Native of 
Height 
Flowers in 
Duration 
Cultivated 
S. Europe- 
18 inches. 
Sept. Oct. 
Perennial . 
in 1596. 
No. 188. 
Aster, a Greek word, signifying a star, a term 
which is well applied to a family of radiated flowers, 
like the present. 
The appellation, Amellus, is retained as a trivial 
name for this plant from the probability, indeed, 
almost certainty, that it is the same which is alluded 
to in the fourth book of the Georgies, where Virgil 
describes his Amellus as growing near the wind- 
ing stream of Mella. Martyn observes that there 
are several rivers of this name ; but that to which 
Virgil alludes, is a river of Lombardy. Hence 
arose, as he says, the ancient popular name of the 
plant, Amellus, used by the country people. It is 
also the Aster atticus of the old authors. 
This plant has occupied the attention of all the 
commentators of Virgil; and his description of it has 
received numerous and rather curious constructions, 
which some of our readers will And pleasure in 
tracing. Martyn, in his Georgies of Virgil, is co- 
pious in extracts from various writers, and being 
himself a botanist, is better qualified for consider- 
ing the subject, and determining the truth, than 
most of his predecessors. 
Class. 
SYNGENESIA. 
