46 PHIIX>SOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1770, 



XX. and XXL Meteorological Observations for 1769, viade at Bridgeivater, 

 Somersetshire; and at Mount' s Bay , Cornwall, by Wm. Borlase, D. D., F. R. S. 

 '■' Communicated by Dr. Jeremiah Milks, Dean of Exeter, and F. R. S. p. 228. 

 These observations, are of the barometer, thermometer, winds, and weather, 

 and quantity of rain, which last for the whole year, is 23.66 inches, at the former 

 place, and 42.73 at the latter. 



XXII. On the Manna Tree, and on the Tarantula. By Dominico Cirillo, M. D. 

 Prof. Nat. Hist, at Naples, p. 233. 

 The manna tree, commonly called ornus by the botanists, is a kind of ash 

 tree, and is to be found under the name of fraximus ornus, in Linnaeus' Sp. 

 Plant. This kind of fraxinus is very easily distinguished from the common 

 fraxinus sive fraxinus excelsior, by the leaves, which are round at the top, 

 subrotunda, integerrima. This tree very seldom grows to a con- 

 siderable height, nor does it acquire a considerable bulk; in general 

 it is from 10 to 20 feet high, the trunk is commonly of 3 or 6 inches 

 in diameter, and the branches are pretty numerous, and irregularly spread; these 

 dimensions however vary, if these trees are not crowded together, and have 

 more liberty of growth. The manna tree is common, not only in Calabria and 

 Sicily, but also on the famous mountain Garganus, situated near the old town of 

 Sypontum on the Adriatic; and is mentioned even by Horace as an inhabitant 

 of that mountain. In all the woods near Naples the manna tree is to be found 

 very often ; but, for want of cultivation, it never produces any manna, and is 

 rather a shrub than a tree. The manner, in which the manna is obtained from 

 the ornus, though very simple, has been yet much misunderstood by all those who 

 travelled in the kingdom of Naples; and among other things they seem to agree, 

 that the best and purest manna is obtained from the leaves of the tree; but this 

 seems to be an opinion taken from the doctrine of the ancients, and received 

 as an incontestible observation, without consulting nature. The manna is 

 generally of two kinds; not on account of their intrinsic quality being different, 

 but only because they are gotten in a different manner. In order to have the 

 manna, those who have the management of the woods of the orni, in the month 

 of July and August, when the weather is very dry and warm, make an oblong 

 incision, and take off from the bark of the tree about 3 inches in length, and 2 

 in breadth ; they leave the wound open, and by degrees the manna runs out, and 

 is almost suddenly thickened to its proper consistence, and is found adhering to 

 the bark of the tree. This manna, which is collected in baskets, and goes 

 under the name of manna grassa, is put in a dry place, because moist and 

 wet places will soon dissolve it again. This first kind is often in large irregular 

 pieces of a brownish colour, and frequently is full of dust and other impurities. 

 But when the people want to have a very fine manna, they apply to the incision 

 of the bark, thin straw, or small bits of shrubs, so that the manna, in coming 



