ma:^^a. 411 



Production — The manna of commerce is collected at the present 

 day exclusively in Sicily. The principal localities producing the drug 

 are the districts around Capaci, Carini, Cinisi, and Favarota, small 

 towns 20 to 25 miles west of Palermo near the shores of the bay of 

 Castellamare ; also the townships of Geraci, Castelbuono, and other 

 places in the district of Cefalu, oO to 70 miles eastward of Paleimo. 



The manna-ash, in the districts whence the best manna is obtained, 

 does not at the present day form natural woods, but is cultivated in 

 regular plantations caXled frassiiietti. The trees, which attain a height 

 of from 10 to 20 feet, are planted in rows and stand about 7 feet apart, 

 the soil between being at times loosened, kept free from weeds, and 

 enriched by manure. After a tree is 8 years old and when its stem is 

 at least 3 inches in thickness, the gathering of manna may begin ; and 

 may continue for 10 or 12 years, when the stem is usually cut down, 

 and a young one brought up from the same root takes its place. The 

 same stump thus has often two or three stems rising from it. 



To obtan manna, transverse cuts from 1^ to 2 inches long and 1 

 inch apart, are made in the bark, just reaching to the wood. One cut 

 is made daily, beginning at the bottom of the tree, the second directly 

 above the first, and so on while dry weather lasts. In the following 

 year, cuts are made in the untouched part of the stem, and in the same 

 way in succeeding seasons. When after some years the tree has been 

 cut all round and is exhausted, it is felled. Pieces of sticks or straws are 

 inserted in the incisions, and become encrusted with the very superior 

 manna, called Manna a cannolo, which however is unknown in com- 

 merce as a special sort. The fine manna ordinarily seen appears to 

 have hardened on the stem of the tree. The manna which flows from 

 the lower incisions, and is often collected on tiles or on a cup-shaped 

 piece of the stem of the prickly pear (Opuntia), is less crystalline, and 

 more gummy and glutinous, and is regarded of inferior quality. 



The best time for notching the stems is in July and August, when 

 the trees have ceased to push forth more leaves. Dry and warm 

 weather is essential for a good harvest. The manna after removal from 

 the tree, is laid upon shelves in order that it may dry and harden 

 before it is packed. The masses left adhering to the stem after the 

 finer pieces have been gathered, are scraped olf and form part of the 

 Small Manna of commerce.^ 



Secretion — We have examined microscopically the bark of stems 

 oi Fraxiaus Ornus that had been incised for manna at Capaci. It 

 exhibits no peculiarity explaining the formation of manna, or any 

 evidence that the saccharine exudation is due to an alteration of the 

 cell-walls as in the case of tragacanth. The bark is poor in tannic 

 matter ; it contains starch, and imparts to water a splendid fluorescence 

 due to the presence of Fraxin. 



Description — Various terms have been used by pharmacological 

 writers to designate the different qualities of manna, but in English 



1 Our account of the production of manna Cleghorn ( Trans, of the Bot. Soc. of Edin- 



has been derived from the observations of burgh, x. 1868-69. 132), and from personal 



Stettner, who visited Sicily in the summer investigations made by one of us in the 



of 1847 (Archlv tier Pharm. iii. 194 ; also neighbourhood of Palermo in May 1872. 



Wiggers' Jahresbericht, 1848. 35; Hooker' a See Hanbury, Science Papers, 367. 

 Jourii. of Bot. i. 1849. 124), from those of 



