102 
The second, or Medicinal Manna, is the manna of the Manna Ash (Fraxinus 
Ornus), 
There is in Bentley and Tiimen's " Medicinal Plants," iii, 170 (1880), a figure 
of the Manna Ash, and an account of the method of extraction, by incision of the stems, 
with a bibliography. It is chiefly collected in Sicily. Its principal constituent is 
M:\nnite, or Manna Sugar. 
In the " Correspondence of John Ray " (Ray Society) we have the following 
two letters : 
(1) From Dr. Robinson to Mr, Ray, 8th September, 1685- 
I travelled from Capua to Naples in the company of an ingenious Neapolitan physician, who enter- 
tained me with the history of his country. He assured me that the Fraxinus, or Ornus, in many places 
north-west of Naples, afforded manna, of which the inhabitants made advantage, though it was not so 
much esteemed as that of Calabria; for gathering and evaporating in the sun this saccharine juice, they 
always make use of wooden instruments and vessels, for it will prey upon metalline, or bony ones, and so 
lose its white colour when concreted. The afore-mentioned Neapolitan informed me that the Cicada did 
feed much upon the Ornus ; which makes me conjecture that this insect (which you have well distinguished 
from our grasshopper) does pierce the tree, and so opens the passage for the manna to sweat out. 
remember, in one of the German Ephem. I lately sent you, there is an account and figure of an Indian tree, 
upon which some insects are said to. work, and prepare a sort of manna. I am apt to believe it may be 
a mistake, and that the manna works itself out of the tree opened and sucked by the insects ; but you are 
best able to judge of these matters. 
(2) Mr. Ray to Dr. Robinson, 14th September, 1685 
I better approve your conjecture concerning the exudation of the manna ; for I do not observe any 
kind of gum, or resin, or concrete juice, to issue out of any tree or herb but at some incision, or wound, 
or rift, or contusion, and therefore it is likely enough that the manna may issue out of the vessels containing 
the specific juice of the tree perforated by some insect. Your other conjecture also concerning the insect 
preparing a kind of manna is not improbable. 
Following are a few Australian references to non-Eucalyptus mannas. 
Mr. Froggatt collected (July, 1895) a small quantity of manna on a twig at Manly, 
Sydney, from a Tea Tree (Leptospermum scoparium), which is, of course, allied to 
Eucalyptus. It was not analysed. 
The present writer, in a report on the Vegetable Exudations collected by the 
Elder Exploring Expedition (Proc. Roy. Soc. S.A., vol. xvi, 1, 1892), stated that that 
of Myoporum platycarpum proved to be identical in composition with the manna of 
commerce yielded by the Ash. 
Collected 29th September, 1891, at Camp 65. Clayey sand. Collector's note : 
This gum [sic.] was collected partly off a small tree 20 feet high, and 4 inches in diameter, and is the 
one on which I noticed gutn [manna. J.H.M.] oozing out, and partly from under it. The tree had been 
bleeding profusely, and for a long time, as there was a great deal of decaying gum (manna) round the trunk. 
I believe the cause of bleeding to be insect-bores, but had not sufficient time to examine it closely, as my 
camel was very restive. The taste is sweet as sugar. 
In spite of its sweetness, Mr. Helms informs me that the natives were not partial to it, preferring 
the gum of Acacia kiophylla ; probably because of its laxative property, and not from any objection to 
its sweetness, inasmuch as the blacks eat lerp and eucalyptus-mannas, honey stored by bees, and also suck 
the honey-laden flowers of certain plants. It will be remembered that Sir Thomas Mitchell offered sugar 
to an aboriginal child, who spat it out with every manifestation of disgust, but the blacks usually do so 
with any edible to which they are unaccustomed. 
