“pRAXiNUS onxvs. | ORD. XXXV. Ascyroidece. 591 
to be much older before they afford it in any considerable quantity. 
Although the Mayna exudes spontaneously. upon the trees, yet in 
order to obtain it more copiously, incisions are made through the 
bark, by means of a sharp crooked instrument; and the season 
thought to be the most favourable for instituting this process, is a 
little before the dog-days commence, wher the weather is dry and 
serene. The incisions are first made in the lower part of the trunk, 
and repeated at the distance of an inch from the former wound, still 
extending the incisions upwards as far as the branches, and con- 
fining them to one side of the tree, the other side being reserved 
till the year following, when it undergoes the same treatment. 
On making these incisions, which are ake a longitudinal direction, 
about a span in length, and nearly two.inches wide, a thick whitish 
juice immediately begins to flow, which gradually hardens on the 
bark, and in the course of eight days acquires the consistence and 
appearance in which the Manna is imported into Britain, when it 
is collected in baskets, and afterwards. packed in large chests.} 
Sometimes the Manna flows in such abundance from the incisions, 
that it runs upon the ground, by which it becomes mixed- with 
various impurities, unless prevented, which is commonly attempted, 
by interposing large concave leaves, stones, chips of wood, “&e. 
The business of collecting Manna mealy. terminates at the end of 
September, when the rainy season sets in.* , 
La manne est le principal reyenn de ce pays & de quelques autres qui en 
sont voisins. I] monte dans une bonne annee a vingt-cing mille Louis d’er. 
Touel Voyage Pittoresque, tom. 1. p. 53. 
« This account is taken from Houel Voyage Piitoresque, and Sestini Lettre 
delta Sicilia, and related by Murray: to which we shall cle Dr. Cirillo’s 
account, Scibstvaicatel to the Royal Society. Vide Vol. 60. p. 2 
“ The manner, in which the manna is obtained from the Ornus, though very 
simple, has been yet very much misunderstood by all those who travelied in the 
kingdom of Naples; and among other things they seem to agree, that the best and 
purest manna is obtained from the Icaves of the tree; but this, I believe, is an 
opinion taken from the doctrine of the ancients, and received as an incontestible 
observation, withaut consulting nature. I never saw such a kind, andall those 
