64 
WHITE ASH. 
is not known whether it can be used in dyeing. It was for- 
merly considered as a diuretic of considerable efficacy, the 
bark and the wood is still known to be a mild purgative, no 
less than the manna which distills from its incisions in the 
warmer parts of Europe. Most part of the manna of com- 
merce is collected in Calabria and Sicily, from the Round- 
leaved Flowering Ash, ( Ornus rotundifolia). The manna 
exudes spontaneously in fine weather, from the middle of 
June to the close of July. During the heat of the day w r e 
observe a transparent liquor issuing from the trunk and the 
branches, which thickens and becomes clotted ; these indu- 
rated exudations are nearly white, and are collected the 
following morning with a wooden knife, provided they have 
not already dissolved to water, as a humid fog is often suf- 
ficient to melt it. It is finally dried in the sun, and is what 
is known by the name of manna in tears. At the close of 
July, when the spontaneous exudation ceases, the peasants 
make incisions in the bark of the Ash, from whence issues 
during the heat of the day a great deal of liquor which 
thickens in large flakes, and produces an inferior manna of 
a brownish colour, which, however, purges more than the 
preceding. 
Several species of Ash afford manna as well as the 
Ornus. 
The shade of the Ash is found destructive to other 
plants, and its roots impoverish the soil to a great degree; 
indeed the ancients imagined the shade of this tree un- 
healthy. On the other hand it will thrive in the shade of 
other trees, and may be planted in the interior of a clump 
where scarcely any other tree will survive. 
W hite Ash, ( Fraxinus acuminata. Lamarck. F. ameri- 
cana. Willd. F. epiptera. Mich. Flor. Bor. Am. 2, p. 
256.) This tree grows from 50 to 70 feet high, and 
sometimes 2 to 3 feet in diameter. The wood is said by 
