OLEACE^E. 445 



Fraxinus. — Linn. 



Flowers polygamous or dioecious. Calyx 4-cleft or wanting. Petals either 4, cohering 

 at base, oblong or linear, or wanting. Stamina 2. Stigma bifid. Fruit orbicular, com- 

 pressed, winged above, 1-seeded by abortion, not dehiscing. 



A large genus, including both Fraxinus and Ornus of most authors, but 

 which are considered by the best authorities as merely forming sections. The 

 species are trees and shrubs confined to the northern hemisphere. They have 

 terete and sometimes tetragonal branches, and opposite, petiolate, pinnate 

 leaves, with 2 — 7 pairs of leaflets, which are either petiolate or sessile, gene- 

 rally dentate, rarely entire. The flowers are racemose or paniculate. 



F. ornus, Linn. — Leaves opposite, large ; leaflets 3 — 4 pairs, ovate-oblong, acuminate, 

 irregularly dentate. Panicles large and many-flowered. Flowers small and polygamous, 

 furnished with a corolla. Fruit wedge-shaped, smooth and winged. 



Linn., Sp. PI. 1510 ; Woodville, i. 104, t. 36 ; Ornus europcea, Stephen- 

 son and Churchill, i. 53 ; Lindley, Flor. Med. 547. 

 Common Names. — Flowering Ash ; Manna Tree. 

 Foreign Names. — Frene a fleurs, Fr.; Avornello, Orniello, It. 



Description. — A small tree, much branched, and covered with a smooth gray bark. 

 The leaves are oblong, on channelled footstalks, and are pinnate and opposite ; the leaflets 

 are in three or four pairs, with a terminal one, opposite, acuminate, unequally serrate, 

 smooth, and of a bright green colour. The flowers are produced in loose panicles at the 

 extremities of the branches, on supra-decompound peduncles. The segments of the calyx 

 are ovate ; and the corolla consists of four, linear, pointed petals ; the stamens are two, 

 supporting long, yellow, incumbent anthers. The ovary is oval, with a very short style, 

 and a notched stigma. The fruit is a pendulous, compressed samara, containing a single 

 lanceolate, cylindrical, brown seed. 



This tree is found in the South of Europe, especially in Calabria and Sicily. 

 It is probable that it is the Melia of Theophrastus, and is the true Fraxinus 

 of the Roman writers. It is from this tree that a portion of the Manna of 

 commerce is obtained, but the largest portion is said to be the product of the F. 

 rotundifolia, and to be also procured from the F. excelsior ; and F. parvifolia. 

 Cirillo (Philos. Trans, lxiii. 234) gives the following account of the mode 

 of collecting it in Calabria. " In order to obtain the manna, those who have 

 the management, in the months of July and August, when the weather is dry 

 and warm, make an oblong incision, and take a piece off from the bark of the 

 tree, about three inches in length and two 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. This manna, 

 which is collected into baskets, and goes under the name of manna grassa, 

 {manna in sorts,) is put in a dry place, because moisture and a damp atmo- 

 sphere will soon dissolve it again. This kind is often in large, irregular 

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

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

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

 runs upon these bodies, and is collected in a sort of regular tubes, and is 

 called manna in cannoli [flake manna). When the summer is rainy the 

 manna is always scarce and bad." 



Houel ( ~\£py. JPittor. de Sicile), gives much the same account of the mode 

 of obtaining it in Sicily. No manna is produced in countries to the north of 

 Calabria, though the tree will bear the climate of England. Some writers 

 suppose the manna a natural product, but others insist that it never takes 

 place except the tree be wounded by an incision, or punctured by insects. 



