MANNA 203 



SUMMARY 



Sugar and two kinds of "manna" are described in Western 

 literature. 



1st, Sugar. Sugar was derived from the sugar cane, which 

 was introduced into Lower California at least one hundred years 

 ago. This was not "manna." 



2d, Father Picolo's Manna. Father Picolo observed a sac- 

 charine deposit on a species of grass that he called reeds (ros- 

 eaux) and not shrubs (arbrisseaux) as Proust recorded the word. 

 Of the plants likely to have yielded this manna, the reed grasses 

 only are to be considered. Of the reed grasses, Phragmites com- 

 munis undoubtedly answers all the conditions that are cited by 

 Father Picolo. This manna is still collected by the Indians. 



3d, Manna of the Pinus. This is yielded by Pinus Lam- 

 bertiana of Oregon, and is cathartic as well as sweet, but no evi- 

 dence exists to indicate that Picolo had any knowledge of its 

 existence. 



Finally, I would decide that without question Father Picolo 

 described, as he saw it, the saccharine deposit on Phragmites 

 communis, which, according to Watson, is caused by aphides. 1 



REFERENCES ON THE SUBJECT OF FATHER PICOLO's MANNA. 



(1) PROUST, Ann. d. Chimie, 57 (1806), p. 145, mentioning 

 Father Picolo and his manna; this occurring on "arbrisseaux" 

 shrubs. 



(2) Bibliotheque des Ecrivains de la Compagnie de Jesus, 

 Liege and Lyon, 1872, p. 1957. Biography of Father Picolo, and 

 mentioning his "Memoir." 



(3) Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, ecrites des Missions etran- 

 geres, in 47 volumes, containing the letters of the Jesuit mission- 

 aries from about 1650-1750. Translated from the Spanish, Vol. V, 



1 Probably the greater part, if not all, of the manna that collects on the green leaves of 

 trees, is produced by certain insects (plant lice or aphida). These insects form manna as 

 the waste product of digestion. It is secreted in small, transparent globules, which give 

 to the leaves to which they adhere a glabrous appearance. The liquid is often so abun- 

 dant as to rain down upon the sidewalks underlying, in sufficient quantity as to adhere to 

 the feet of pedestrians. To the entomologist this manna is known as "honey-dew." 

 Domestic bees eat and store away this manna, but it makes an inferior quality of honey. 

 Colonies of bees whose food during the winter is honey-dew honey do not thrive, and are 

 said to be susceptible to "foul brood". Honey-dew is very common, on a great variety 

 of trees. J. T. Lloyd. 



