$6 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS.. 



of the * Nardoo.' Afterwards," he adds, " the body 

 which germinates, and produces the future plant, is 

 filled with well-defined and very large starch granules. 

 I applied the test of iodine to them, which speedily 

 turned them a violet-blue colour, thus revealing their 

 true nature, and at the same time affording evidence 

 of the principal source of nutrition in the ' Nardoo.' " ^ 

 It appears from King's narrative, that the preparation 

 consists of pounding the fruits between stones, and 

 baking into cakes, as we use flour, or simply boiling. 



The " Nardoo" must be classed with the " Tripe dc 

 Roche " as famine plants, which have been resorted 

 to in dire extremity, and which for a time have 

 sustained human life. As such they are to be 

 remembered, although no one would think of resorting 

 to them, as articles of food, unless impelled thereto 

 by necessity. 



Club Moss. 



The club mosses are a small genus of plants, of 

 which we possess some six British species, having much 

 the habit of large mosses, but with a reproduction 

 more closely allied to the horsetails and ferns. In 

 some places they are called Stag's-horn or Fox's-tail, 

 and are known, when the fruit is ripe, to contain 

 a quantity of fine dusty powder, which shakes out 

 easily, and was, in former times, more in use than at 

 present. This powder is highly inflammable, and 

 is the " lightning meal " of the Germans, because 

 employed in the manufacture of fireworks, and at one 



' " On the Nardoo Plant," by David Moore, in Gardener'' s Chronicle, 

 Aug. 30, 1862, p. 812. 



