MANNA, is also a Scripture-term, signifying a miraculous kind of food which fell from heaven for the support of the Israelites in their passage through the wilderness, being in form of coriander-seeds, its colour like that of bdellium, and its taste like honey.
They called it manna, either from the Hebrew word manah, a "gift," to intimate its being a gift from heaven; or from minnah, which signifies "to prepare," because the manna came to them ready for eating, and needed
Manna
Manners.
needed no preparation but gathering; or from the Egyptian word, man, "what is it?" which last etymology seems the more probable, in regard the Scripture takes notice of the surprize they were under when they first saw this new food descend.
Salmasius, however, prefers another. According to him, the Arabs and Chaldeans used the word man to signify a kind of dew or honey that fell on the trees, and was gathered in great abundance on mount Libanus: on which footing, the Israelites did not use the term manna out of surprize, but because they found this food fall with the dew, in the same manner as the honey so well known under the name of man.
Salmasius adds, that the manna of the Israelites was in reality no other than that honey or dew condensed; and that the one and the other were the same with the wild honey wherewith St John was fed in the wilderness. So that the miracle did not consist in the formation of any new substance in favour of the Israelites; but in the punctual manner in which it was dispensed by Providence for the sustenance of so vast a multitude.
Manna-Tree, is a species of the ash*, called the fraxinus rotundifolia, a native of Calabria in Italy. The shoots of this tree are much shorter, and the joints closer together, than those of the common ash; the small leaves are shorter, and deeper sawed on their edges, and are of a lighter green. The flowers come out from the side of the branches, which are of a purple colour, and appear in the spring before the leaves come out. This tree is of humble growth, seldom rising more than 15 or 16 feet high in this country.