41 G OLEACE^. 



Q 



Q 



These trees are visited in the month 



of August by immense numbers of a small white Coccus, from the 

 puncture of which a saccharine fluid exudes, and solidifies in little 

 grains. The people go out before sunrise, and shake the grains of 

 manna from the branches on to linen cloths, spread out beneath the 

 trees. _ The exudation is also collected by dipping the small branches 

 on which it is formed, into vessels of hot water, and evaporating the 

 saccharine solution to a syrupy consistence, which in this state is used 

 for sweetening food, or is mixed with flour to form a sort of cake. 



A fine specimen of the Oak Manna of Diarbekir was sent to the 

 London International Exhibition of 18G2. It constituted a moist soft 

 mass of agglutinated tears, much resembling an inferior sort of ash- 

 manna, and had an agreeable saccharine taste. 



A less pure form of this manna occurs as a compact, greyish, saccha- 

 rine mass, sometimes hard enough to be broken with a hammer. It 

 consists of sugary matter, mixed with abundance of small fragments of 

 green leaves, and has a herby smell and pleasant sweet taste. A sample 

 of it brought from Diarbekir, examined by one of us, yielded 90 per 

 cent, of dextrogyre sugar, which could not be obtained in a crystalline 

 state, though it exists in such condition in the crude drug. Starch and 

 dextrme were entirely wanting.^ 



A specimen furnished to Lug,..^ ^j ^^c.^......^^... ^..^.^^^ 



mucilage, a small amount of starch^ about 48 per cent, of dextrogyre 

 grape sugar, with traces of tannic acid and chlorophyll. 



This is a white saccharine substance which, in 



Haussl 



Bi 



gon in 185 

 of them oblono- 



the height of summer and in the early part of the day, is found adher- 

 ing m some abundance to the leaves of the larch (Pinus Larix I), 

 growing on the mountains about Briancon in Dauphiny. It was 

 tormerly collected for use in medicine, but only to a very limited ex- 

 tent, tor it was rare in Paris in tlie time of Geofii-oy (1709-1731), 

 anci at the present day has quite disappeared from trade, though still 

 gathered by the peasants. A specimen collected for one of us near 

 i3iiancon in 18o4, consists of small, detached, opafiue, white tears, many 

 fi. 1 1 X," ''^^'^ channelled, and encrusting the needle-like leaf ot 

 the Jarch; they have a sweet taste and slight odour.s Under the 

 microscope they exhibit indistinct crystals. 



dpf PT^""^.''"^"''^ ^'"^^ ^^^^ examined in 1858 by Berthelot, who 

 muhrc'^H^^O'^^ ^OW^'''' ^"^'''' *^™^'^ Melezitose, answering to the for- 



lnr.^.^Tf''''^'^^^?F saccharine exudations have been observed by travel- 

 pfL?^ i^aturahsts ; we shall simply enumerate the more remarkable, 

 leierimg the reader for further information to the original notices. 

 to Hn'r'i ^^"J'f^-Boi^s- affords in Luristan a substance which, according 



Oak T' ^''^'t'/- '^"'"'^^^ ^y *^^e inhabitants, and is extremely hk^ 

 ^'^^ Manna. It is Rfnfn.i i^„ 4.i , n ' ,, ^ a^i-^, fy^igilisl'-> 



arifl «^,. .^ I 7 , ~ -""--^^^ "J Luu same traveller uiat oat/^ ^ „, . ^ 

 exudatZ a" i" -^''^^^^^^ ^°^«'^-' likewise yield in Persia saccharine 

 PinulcZ' r^^^i''^ "^^^^^ ^^'^« anciently collected from the ceda , 



^^t^^sS;:^' -.5-^is-. 



^ Loc. cit, p, 35. 





i 

 I 



