Tamarisk mannifera
(gcide) | Manna \Man"na\ (m[a^]n"n[.a]), n. [L., fr. Gr. ma`nna, Heb.
m[=a]n; cf. Ar. mann, properly, gift (of heaven).]
1. (Script.) The food supplied to the Israelites in their
journey through the wilderness of Arabia; hence, divinely
supplied food. --Ex. xvi. 15.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Bot.) A name given to lichens of the genus Lecanora,
sometimes blown into heaps in the deserts of Arabia and
Africa, and gathered and used as food; called also {manna
lichen}.
[1913 Webster]
3. (Bot. & Med.) A sweetish exudation in the form of pale
yellow friable flakes, coming from several trees and
shrubs and used in medicine as a gentle laxative, as the
secretion of Fraxinus Ornus, and {Fraxinus
rotundifolia}, the manna ashes of Southern Europe.
[1913 Webster]
Note: Persian manna is the secretion of the camel's thorn
(see Camel's thorn, under Camel); Tamarisk manna,
that of the Tamarisk mannifera, a shrub of Western
Asia; Australian, manna, that of certain species of
eucalyptus; Brian[,c]on manna, that of the European
larch.
[1913 Webster]
Manna insect (Zool), a scale insect ({Gossyparia
mannipara}), which causes the exudation of manna from the
Tamarix tree in Arabia.
[1913 Webster] |