manna

n.

the dried juice, of sweet taste,obtained from incisions in the bark of various trees. TheAustralian manna is obtained from certain Eucalypts, especially E. viminalis, Labill. It differs chemically from thebetter known product of the Manna-Ash ( Fraxinus ornus).See Lerp.

1835. Ross, `Hobart Town Almanack,' p. 99:

«Several of the species yield an exudation in the spring andsummer months, which coagulates and drops from the leaves tothe ground in small irregular shaped snow white particles,often as large as an almond [?]. They are sweet and verypleasant to the taste, and are greedily devoured by the birds,ants, and other animals, and used to be carefully picked up andeaten by the aborigines. This is a sort of Manna.»

1878. R. Brough Smyth, `The Aborigines of Victoria,' vol. i.p. 211:

«Two varieties of a substance called manna are among thenatural products . . . one kind . . . being secreted by theleaves and slender twigs of the E. viminalis frompunctures or injuries done to these parts of the tree. . . .It consists principally of a kind of grape sugar and about 5 %.of the substance called mannite. Another variety of manna isthe secretion of the pupa of an insect of the Psyllafamily and obtains the name of lerp among theaborigines. At certain seasons of the year it is very abundanton the leaves of E. dumosa, or mallee scrub . . .»

1878. W. W. Spicer, `Handbook of Plants of Tasmania, p. viii:

«The Hemipters, of which the aphids, or plant-lice, are afamiliar example, are furnished with stiff beaks, with whichthey pierce the bark and leaves of various plants for thepurpose of extracting the juices. It is to the punctures ofthis and some other insects of the same Order, that the sweetwhite manna is due, which occurs in large quantities during thesummer months on many of the gum-trees.»