Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Manna \Man"na\, n. [L., fr. Gr. ?, 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.
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.
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 {F. rotundifolia}, the
manna ashes of Southern Europe.
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.
{Manna grass} (Bot.), a name of several tall slender grasses
of the genus {Glyceria}. they have long loose panicles,
and grow in moist places. {Nerved manna grass} is
{Glyceria nervata}, and {Floating manna grass} is {G.
flu}.
{Manna insect} (Zo["o]l), a scale insect ({Gossyparia
mannipara}), which causes the exudation of manna from the
Tamarisk tree in Arabia.
Source : WordNet®
Fraxinus ornus
n : southern Mediterranean ash having fragrant white flowers in
dense panicles and yielding manna [syn: {manna ash}, {flowering
ash}]