CALABRIAN MANNA. 



365 



that I declined a sample which was kindly offered me. I 1072. 

 thought also that if I travelled into Calabria I should easily 

 obtain much better, as well as all desired particulars respecting 

 the trade in manna, of which, according to the latest edition 

 (1868) of Murray's Handbook for Southern Italy, Calabria 

 Citra is the " principal seat." I accordingly proceeded south- 

 ward. 



Around Florence I may remark, and especially between that 

 city and Pisa, the manna ash (Fraxinus ornus, L.) is frequent, 

 being one of the small low trees grown as a support for the 

 vine. Except these examples I hardly saw the tree until I 

 reached the shores of the Gulf of Taranto, when I observed 

 some very tall specimens in the strip of humid forest a little 

 south of Policoro. 



Journeying onward I arrived at Rossano, a town in Calabria Rossano. 

 Citra, of about 10,000 inhabitants, situated three or four miles 

 from the sea. Here I learnt that the manna trees, which are 

 called Ornelli, grow on some of the adjacent mountains, that Ornelli. 

 they are of large size, and are not cultivated, that manna is 

 obtained from them by incisions in the trunk made by the 

 peasants in July and August, that the manna got is mostly of 

 the soft or fatty kind, very little of it being obtained in long 

 white pieces or cannoli, and in some seasons none at all. 



The collecting of manna about Rossano is at present, I was Collection in 

 assured, a very small and insignificant branch of industry. Few Calabna Cltra 

 persons among those from whom I sought information knew 

 anything of the gathering of manna, or even of the existence 

 of the manna-ash in the neighbourhood. One gentleman, a 

 principal inhabitant of the town and holding an official position, 

 to whom I had a letter of introduction, assured me that the 

 incising of the stems of the trees had been since the last four 

 or five years forbidden by the Government ; and the same state- 

 ment was made by others. It is plain, however, that manna 

 is still gathered about Rossano though the amount is quite 

 insignificant, for I obtained from a pharmacien in the town a 

 specimen, being part of some he had purchased from a peasant 

 the previous season, 



