215 



ON THE HABIT AND USE OF NARDOO (MARSILEA 

 DUUMMONDII, A.Br.), TOGETHER WITH SOME 

 OBSERVATIONS ON THE INFLUENCE OF WATER- 

 PLANTS IN RETARDING EVAPORATION. 



By Tiios. L. Bancroft, M.B., Edin. 



(Communicated hy J. H. Maiden, F.L.S., F.C.S.) 



I lately had an opportunity to visit the south-western corner of 

 Queensland, journeying there via South Australia and returning 

 eastward across Queensland. 



Nardoo was first encountered in quantity near Lake Koppera- 

 mana on Cooper's Creek. I learnt that the blacks in that district, 

 and indeed all over the watershed of the Cooper, Diamantina, and 

 Georgina Rivers, still made use of it as in the days of Burke 

 and Wills ; and also that the plant is a Marsilea, as had been 

 originally stated, but doubted by some, who thought it impossible 

 that sufficient involucres (sporocarps) to serve for food could be 

 obtained from a Marsilea, the Nardoo of Burke and Wills being 

 regarded by them as the seed of Seshariia aculeata, Pers. I found 

 also that Nardoo did not grow in'permanent water nor in swamps; 

 it was no more a water-plant than Lignum (MiMenheckia Cun- 

 ninghamii, F.v.M.), Blue-bush (Chenopodium auricomum, Lindl.), 

 or Coolibar (Eucali/ptus bicolor, A. Cunn.), with which it was 

 associated ; it grew only on country subject to inundation and 

 never on sand hills or on stony plains. It is perennial in habit, 

 with a creeping rhizome, the growing end of which remains alive 

 even through a drought, and throws up fronds and involucres after 

 rain or after having been irrigated by flood water. I could not 

 satisfy myself that it propagated by spores. The leaves close up 

 at night. The plant is an ornamental one and would be a valu- 

 able addition to the fernery. 



