198 PHARMACOPEIAL DRUGS 



unlikely to have been met by him. For example, also, 

 (white maple, Acer macrophyllum, see appended list of 

 references, No. 8). 



Only reed grasses are likely to come into consideration 

 with the manna of Picolo, and of these we have recorded 

 as follows: 



(1) Manna grass, Glyceria. This seems to be out of 

 the question, as text-books on botany (Gray, etc.) 

 state that the name, denoting sweet, is given in allusion 

 to the taste of the grain. 



(2) Phragmites communis, Trin. Described by U. S. 

 Geological exploration of the 40th parallel. C. King, 

 5th vol. Botany. S. Watson, p. 390. 



"Found from Florida to Canada and westward to the 

 Pacific. On the banks of fresh-water streams and 

 springs from the Truckee to the East Humboldt Moun- 

 tains, Nevada, 4-6000 feet altitude. Sugar is said by 

 Durand and Hilgard 1 to be extracted from the stalks of 

 this grass by the Indians, but the scanty juice is not at 

 all saccharine. 



"A sweet secretion, however, is sometimes formed 

 upon it in considerable quantity by aphides, as well as 

 upon the leaves of cotton-wood and other trees, and is 

 collected by both the Utes and the Mormons." 



If this is correct [there is no higher authority to be 

 found than Sereno Watson], the "manna" observed to 

 form on these plants is the secretion of an insect and 

 not an exudation from the plant. Phragmites com- 

 munis, thus far, comes nearest the plant described by 

 Father Picolo. 



All the plants cited before were found to occur in 

 locations altogether different from the locality where 



i Pacific R. R. Surveys, Bqt. Rep, By Durand and Hilgard, Washington, D. C., 



