482 MANNA. 



senses ; the picturesque wilderness had given place to 

 the unromantic realities of industry ; and the reign 

 of business had superseded that of poetry and 

 romance. 



Near Melbourne I again noticed the manna men- 

 tioned in a former page, but had no opportunity of 

 making further observations upon it. Mr. Bynoe, 

 however, having since visited Australia, has turned 

 his attention to the subject, and the result of his 

 experience, which will be found below, tends to over- 

 throw the opinion I have previously expressed, to 

 the effect, that this substance is the exudation of a 

 tree, not the deposit of an insect.* 



* " There is a prevailing opinion in some parts of New Hol- 

 land, particularly on the east side, that the gum trees distil a 

 peculiar form of manna, which drops at certain seasons of the 

 year. I have heard it from many of the inhabitants, who, on a 

 close investigation, could only say, that it was to be found ad- 

 hering to the old and young bark of the trees, as well as strewed 

 on the ground beneath. 



" In the month of December, about the warmest period of the 

 year, during my rambles through the forest in search of insects, 

 I met with this manna in the above-mentioned state, but could 

 never find in any part of the bark a fissure or break whence 

 such a substance could flow. Wherever it appeared, moreover, 

 the red-eyed cicadse were in abundance. I was inclined to think 

 that the puncture produced by these suctorial insects into the 

 tender shoots for juice, would in all probability give an exit for 

 such a substance ; but by wounding the tender branches with a 

 sharp-pointed knife, I could never obtain a saccharine fluid or 

 substance. It was the season when the cicadse were abundantly 

 collected together for re-production ; and on warm, clear, still 

 days, they clung to the more umbrageous parts, particulai'ly 

 to trees that, having been deprived of old limbs, shot forth 

 vigorous stems, thickly clustered with leaves. To one of these. 



