Am.  Jour.  Pharm.  ) 
Feb.  1, 1873.  J 
Calabrian  Manna. 
65 
troduction,  assured  me  that  the  incising  of  the  stems  of  the  trees  had 
been  for  the  last  four  or  five  years  forbidden  by  the  Government ; 
and  the  same  statement  was  made  by  others.  It  is  plain,  however, 
that  manna  is  still  gathered  about  Rossano,  though  the  amount  is 
quite  insignificant,  for  I  obtained  from  a  pharmacien  in  the  town  a 
specimen,  being  part  of  some  he  had  purchased  from  a  peasant  the 
previous  season. 
Hoping  for  more  information,  and  that  I  might  at  least  obtain 
better  specimens,  I  went  to  Corigliano,  a  small  town,  the  mountains 
around  which  produce,  according  to  Murray's  Handbook,  "  the  finest 
manna  in  Calabria," — a  fact  without  doubt  perfectly  true  a  century 
ago.  Here  I  was  told  that  no  manna  is  now  brought  in  for  sale,  the 
collection  having  entirely  ceased.  I  called  on  five  pharmaciens  in 
the  town:  three  of  them  had  in  stock  no  manna  whatever;  the 
fourth  had  some  which  he  had  purchased  in  Naples ;  but  the  fifth 
(Signor  Giuseppe  Guidi)  had  a  box  containing  a  pound  or  two  of 
manna  of  the  country,  of  which  he  kindly  gave  me  a  sample.  He 
told  me  that  it  was  old,  none  being  now  collected.  This  manna  is  a 
-moist,  semifluid,  saccharine  mass,  of  a  dirty  yellowish  grey. 
On  the  5th  of  May,  1872,  I  reached  Cosenza,  the  capital  of  the 
province,  situated  at  the  head  of  the  valley  of  the  Crati,  in  passing 
through  which  I  observed  a  few  trees  of  Ornus.  The  locality  was 
anciently  renowned  for  manna.  Here  I  repeated  my  inquiries  in 
several  pharmacies,  but  in  vain.  At  length  I  found  one,  the  pro- 
prietor of  which  showed  me  some  soft  manna,  which  he  said  had  been 
got  near  Cotrone.  I  discovered  also  in  another  pharmacie  manna  of 
two  qualities,  seelta  and  in  pasta,  both  of  which  the  pharmacien  stated 
he  had  bought  of  peasants  who  had  collected  it  at  Rossano.  The  col- 
lecting of  manna  about  Cosenza  was  quite  ignored  by  most  of  the 
persons  whom  I  asked  for  information.  Those  who  had  any  acquaint- 
ance with  the  drug  declared  it  was  no  longer  an  object  of  industry  in 
that  part  of  Calabria.  One  pharmacien  asserted  that  the  collection 
of  manna  had  been  prohibited  for  the  last  six  or  seven  years. 
The  course  of  my  journey  having  led  me  to  Messina,  I  had  the 
pleasure  of  making  the  acquaintance  of  Mr.  Robert  Sanderson,  a  mer- 
chant of  that  city  of  long  standing,  whose  business  in  Italian  produce 
includes  the  shipment  of  manna.  On  asking  this  gentleman  about 
Calabrian  manna,  he  informed  me  he  was  ignorant  of  such  a  commo- 
dity; and  on  my  showing  him  some  of  the  drug  in  the  soft  form  iu 
5 
