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Manna

1. The food supplied to the Israelites in their journey through the wilderness of Arabia; hence, divinely supplied food.

2. (Science: botany) 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. (Science: botany) 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.

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; Briancon manna, that of the European larch.

(Science: botany) manna grass, a scale insect (Gossyparia mannipara), which causes the exudation of manna from the tamarisk tree in arabia.

Origin: L, fr. Gr, Heb. Man; cf. Ar. Mann, properly, gift (of heaven).