THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 413 



its stem, but it was not so much on account of this as for 

 the sake of its beauty and its use as an article of food that 

 it became almost sacred among the ancient races in Amer- 

 ica. The Peruvian virgins, themselves devoted to the wor- 

 ship of the sun, made bread from it, which the Incas offered 

 as a sacrifice. And when the sacred plant failed in their 

 gardens, they substituted gold and silver imitations. 1 



Manna, also valuable in many respects, is the ready-pre- 

 pared sugar furnished by a tree. It runs and hardens on 

 the trunk and branches of the flowering-ash, which is culti- 

 vated in Sicily, and from which the white and sugary sta- 

 lactites are collected by means of a wooden knife. 2 



On the other hand, the trunks and fruits of some curious 

 trees are quite covered with a thick coat of wax, exactly 

 similar to that of the bee, and which is used instead of it 

 for giving light and other purposes. Among these is the 

 wax-palm (Ceroxylon Andicola), found in the Andes, the 

 stipe of which is incrusted with this substance, which the 

 savages remove by rubbing it off as they climb the tree. 



1 Maize certainly comes originally from America, though it is erroneously 

 called in some parts Turkish and Indian wheat, under the supposition that it is 

 indigenous to these countries. If this beautiful gramineous plant had belonged to 

 the old continent, the ancient naturalists and authorities on farming would not 

 have failed to mention it, and yet it is not spoken of in the writings of Theo- 

 phrastus, Pliny, Columella, and Dioscorides. And while no author names it be- 

 fore the discovery of Columbus, we see, on the contrary, the first describers of 

 America constantly speaking of it. 



2 The manna used in medicine is principally procured from the flowering-ash 

 (Fraxinus ornus), which is cultivated for this purpose in Sicily and Calabria. 

 Other trees produce analogous substances. The larch-tree (Larix Europcea, 

 Linn.) furnishes the manna of Briancon. In some countries even herbs are 

 covered with an abundant sugary exudation. 



