n. [ L., fr. Gr. ma`nna, Heb. mān; 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 ]
☞ 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; Briançon 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 ]