438 A CHEMIST'S HOLIDAY IN FRANCE. 



1864. however, believe that M. Berthelot had mistaken turpentine for 

 Manna in sugar, I commenced making further inquiry and fortunately 



situ at applied to M. Turin, an intelligent pharmacien, who at once 

 Chanteraerle. 



assured me that Briangon manna was no myth, but a saccharine 



substance to be actually found on the foliage of the larch. 

 M. Turin stated that in the height of summer and in the early 

 part of the day, the larches in the forest (or at least some of 

 them I did not understand the remark to apply to all) were 

 really whitened with the manna, as if there had been a sprinkling 

 of snow, a thing, remarked the worthy pharmacien, that was 

 " vraiment belle a voir." M. Turin further added that the manna 

 had nothing in common with turpentine, or with the aphis 

 we had noticed on the leaves. In reply to my eager inquiry, 

 if there was still a chance of seeing the manna in situ, and 

 what locality for it was most accessible, M. Turin directed us to 

 the village of Chantemerle, near which there was a mountain 

 abounding in larches, and added that on some of them it was 

 possible we might still find the manna. Though we had engaged 

 to leave Briangon at an early hour, we determined first to make 

 the expedition suggested by M. Turin, and accordingly drove to 

 the village of Chantemerle, near which we found larches in 

 abundance, but manna was not equally obvious. A careful 

 search, however, of the foliage of the trees revealed here and 

 there a little tear of white sugary matter, encrusting the needle- 

 like leaves. This was all the ocular evidence of manna we could 

 obtain; but on returning to the village, an old peasant whom 

 Collection in we accidentally met, assured us that it was useless to search for 

 the manna except in the cool of the morning, and that moreover 

 the season for finding it was almost over. He promised, however, 

 to speak to the shepherds on the mountain, and obtain through 

 them a little of the substance, if any could still be found. The 

 old man kept his word, and through him I received at Grenoble 

 a fortnight afterwards, a good specimen of the larch manna, 

 a portion of which I have now the pleasure of exhibiting. 



Seeing my interest about the manna, the old peasant asked 

 me if I knew what he called Genipi; and on my professing 

 ignorance he ran home to get some. It turned out to be an 



