176 CORRESPONDENCE OF RAY. 



I travelled from Capua to Naples in the company of 

 an ingenious Neapolitan physician, who entertained me 

 with the history of his country. He assured me that 

 the Fraxinus, or Ornus, in many places north-west of 

 Naples, afforded manna, of which the inhabitants made 

 advantage, though it was not so much esteemed as that 

 of Calabria ; for, gathering and evaporating in the sun 

 this saccharine juice, they always make use of wooden 

 instruments and vessels, for it will prey upon metalline, 

 or bony ones, and so lose its white colour when con- 

 creted. The afore-mentioned Neapolitan informed me 

 that the Cicada did feed much upon the Ornus ; which 

 makes me conjecture that this insect (which you have 

 well distinguished from our grasshopper) does pierce the 

 tree, and so opens the passage for the manna to sweat 

 out. 1 remember, in one of the German Ephem. I lately 

 sent you, there is an account and figure of an Indian 

 tree, upon which some insects are said to work, and pre- 

 pare a sort of manna. I am apt to believe it may be a 

 mistake, and that the manna works itself out of the tree 

 opened and sucked by the insects ; but you are best able 

 to judge of these matters. 



September 8, 85. 



Mr. RAY to Dr. ROBINSON. 



SIR, M. Dodard's vegetable substance growing on 

 the hornbeam tree I know not what to say to. I wish 

 it were my luck to see it. That the same tree yielded a 

 gum like lacca seems to me very strange, that being a 

 bleeding-tree, of which I never heard of any that yielded 

 any gum. Howbeit, M. Marchand was a very credible 

 person. 



Wepfer's poilosophy concerning poisonous plants may 

 be possibly true, but it deserves farther consideration. 

 Pauca respi denies falsa pronunciant. 



I better approve your conjecture concerning the exuda- 



