306 



CALABRIAX MANNA. 



i87a. 



D< ~ ~~ 



Manna at 

 Corigliano. 



Cosenza. 



Messina. 



Hoping for more information, and that I might at least obtain 

 better specimens, I went to Corigliano, a small town, the 

 mountains around which produce, according to Murray's Hand- 

 & ^ ^ Q finegt manna i n Calabria," a fact without doubt 

 perfectly true a century ago. Here I was told that no manna 

 is now brought in for sale, the collection having entirely ceased. 

 I called on five pharmaciens in the town : three of. them had 

 in stock no manna whatever; the fourth had some which 

 he had purchased in Naples) but the fifth (Signer Giuseppo 

 GuidiJ had a box containing a pound or two of manna of 

 the country, of which he kindly gave me a sample. He 

 told me that it was old, none being now collected. This 

 manna is a moist, semifluid, saccharine mass, of a dirty 

 yellowish-grey. 



On the 5th May (1872) I reached Cosenza, the capital of the 

 province, situated at the head of the valley of the Crati, in 

 passing through which I observed a few trees of Ormis. The 

 locality was anciently renowned for manna. Here I repeated 

 my inquiries in several pharmacies, but in vain. At length 

 I found one, the proprietor of which showed me some soft 

 manna which he said had been got near Cotrone. I discovered 

 also in another pharmacie manna of two qualities, scelta, and 

 in pasta, both of which the pharmacien stated he had bought 

 of peasants who had collected it at Kossano. The collecting 

 of manna about Cosenza was quite ignored by most of the 

 persons whom I asked for information. Those who had any 

 aquaintance with the drug declared it was no longer an object 

 of industry in that part of Calabria, One pharmacien asserted 

 that the collection of manna had been prohibited for the last 

 six or seven years. 



The course of my journey having led me to Messina, I had 

 the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Mr. Robert 

 Sanderson, a merchant of that city of long standing, whose 

 business in Italian produce includes the shipment of mann:i. 

 On asking this gentleman about Calabrian manna, he informed 

 me he was ignorant of such a commodity ; and on my showing 

 him some of the drug in the soft form in which I had procured 



