584 ROSACEZ. 
called Kashira by the villagers of that province, a small tree 
with yellow and white mottled wood, which is much valued 
for making walking-sticks. The Persian name Shirkhushk sig- 
nifies ‘dried milk.” Aitchison describes Cotoneaster as a tall 
shrub or small tree common on all the hills of the Paropamisus 
range, where there is moisture at 4,000 feet altitude. He says 
the stems are esteemed for walking-sticks and for handles 
to agricultural implements. From this shrub a manna called 
Shirkhisht at a certain season of the year is collected. It is 
largely exported to Hindustan and Persia. (Trans. Lin. Soc- 
2nd Ser. Botany, Vol. iti., p. 64.) In India this manna is 
generally confounded with Gazangabin or Tamarisk manna, 
both kinds forming one commercial article which is sold under 
the name of Shirkhisht or Gazangabin. The author of the 
Makhzan describes the manna as readily melting in the mouth 
with a sweet cool taste; when adulterated with barley flour, 
as is sometimes the case, it is not wholly soluble. He remarks 
that the Christians obtain a similar substance from Italy in 
large quantities, and that in India, in the districts of Behar, 
Patna, and Bhagulpur, a substance something like manna is 
prepared by heating the roots of a tree called in Hindi Katera 
over the fire, so as to cause an exudation of juice from the cut 
ends, which concretes like candy and has the properties of 
manna. It is called in those parts Harlélu. Hakim Mir 
Muhammad abul Hamid states that he has himself used it as 
manna.* Manna is much valued in the Hast, as, in addition to 
* A sample of manna from an unknown botanieal sarees sent to Dr, G. 
_ Watt from the Central Provinces, was in whitish masses with a stratified 
eetish tothe taste Batic an sanee of ordinary manna, 
It was soluble i he weer with a slight opacity, and the solution was not 
affected by iodine or lead acetate ; it had a slight right-handed rotation on 
premiery light ee 58°), and the reduction it caused j in Fehling’s solution 
Showed that it contained 5-84 per ce cient - of glucose. It dissolved in cold 
dalphnrié acid with a red colour, and boiled with hydrochloric acid it afford- 
brown solution. Oxidized tien Siege acid white crystals of mucic acid 
were deposited. It began to fuse at 130° and melted at 140° in brown 
globules. Dissolved in boiling pooh and the solution cooled, a crop of hard 
white crystals separated. These crystals did not reduce Fe ehling, and their 
lution had no wat on polarized light. They melted not below 160°. 
The say liquor was very fermentable, abundantly reduced Fehling, — 
was dextro-rotatory. The white erystals were not efflorescent, and resem- 
bled mannite, except that they were not so soluble in water, 
