FRA.XINUS ORNUS. 
m 
situations, to emit a sweet juice, which concretes on exposure to the 
air, and which may be considered a kind of manna. The principal 
European trees {inown to produce this substance, in different cli- 
mates and seasons, are the larch, the orange, the walnut, the willow 
and the mulberry.* Near Khounsar in Persia it is obtained from 
some species of oak ; and also from oaks growing between Merdin 
and Diarbekir.f The Cistus Landaniferus in some parts of Spain 
produces manna, which in its recent state has no purgative quality, 
and is eaten, it is said, by the shepherds. J In Sicily the three 
species of Fraxinus we have mentioned, are regularly cultivated for 
th€ purpose of procuring manna, and for this purpose they are 
planted on the declivity of a hill with an eastern aspect ; after ten 
years growth, the trees first begin to yield the manna, but they re- 
quire to be much older before they afford it in any quantity. At 
Brianjon, in France, manna is said to be collected from all kinds of 
shrubs, and it is remarked, that those seasons which produce it in the 
greatest abundance, the trees never thrive, and frequently die the 
following winter. 
A curious and interesting question here arises; is the manna a 
pecuhar secretion belonging to some particular tribes of plants, as 
the camphor is; or is it an exudation of some part of the nutritive 
jnices which belong to plants generally, as part of their vegetative 
system? It was the opinion of the ancients, that manna was some 
^ixtraneous substance foreign to the tree 5 a deposition, and not an 
exudation, and they considered the best and purest manna to be 
what was deposited on the leaves. This latter belief it is said still 
Obtains in some parts of Italy, § and the Sicilian custom of giving to 
their manna trees an eastern aspect, would seem to be derived frorii 
ancient habit, founded on this opinion. We will explain this :— in 
Spain, Italy, and all the othercoasts bordering on the Mediterranean 
Sea, there is with easterly winds a dense, damp, gummy atmosphere; 
the effect of this wind upon vegetation is very remarkable ; the 
leaves, and every other part of the trees and plants, acquire a clammy 
feel, as if they had been washed over with a solution of gum, or 
Saccharine matter ; this substance may even be taken off on the 
bi)!f* Haller, Stirp. Helv. N. 1624. 
, Otter, Voyage eo Taiquie et en Perse, vol. ii. p. 264. 
, X Vide Dillon's Travels through Spain, p. 127. 
§ And yet it is difficult to reconcile sucli an opinion with tha manner of obtaiDing 
4be manna, which will be hereafter described. 
