Spencer, What is Nardoo. 



Vict. Nat. 

 Vol. XXXV 



WHAT IS NARDOO. 

 By Sir Baldwin Spencer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., D.Sc. 

 {Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, nth Feb., T918.) 

 In the Victorian Naturalist of January, 1915 (vol. xxxi., p. 133), 

 there appeared a short but interesting article by Mr. E. H. Lees 

 under the above title. In this communication Mr. Lees very 

 briefly discussed the subject of " Nardoo " from two different 

 points of view — (1) what actually is nardoo ; is it a name applied 

 to one single plant or product of the same, or is it a name applied 

 to the products of several plants that are, or were, used as foods 

 by the aboriginals ; and (2) is the nardoo, so often referred to 

 in connection with the Burke and Wills Expedition as forming 

 the staple food of the explorers during their last days on 

 Cooper's Creek, the sporocarp of a species of Marsilea, or did 

 they give the name to and subsist not only on this but on seeds 

 of grasses and leguminous plants to which they applied the 

 same name.* 



The matter is one of considerable interest both from a natural 

 history, an ethnological, and, as connected with the Burke and 

 Wills Expedition, an historical point of view. As one who has 

 seen and gathered nardoo where it grows in profusion, has had 

 long and intimate intercourse with the natives, watching them 

 grinding and pounding the various " seeds " that they use as 

 food, and, above all, in regard to this special question, lias 

 frequently discussed with the late Dr. Howitt this and other 

 matters connected with the Burke and Wills Expedition, it 

 has seemed to me to be of some interest and importance to 

 arrive at a definite decision as to what is nardoo. In the 

 endeavour to do this I have made as complete an examination 

 as possible of all the available evidence, including the accounts 

 of the expedition as published in book form, and in the 'daily 

 Melbourne papers for 1861, r862, and 1863, the Report of the 

 Parliamentary Commission in 1861-2, the records of the term 

 nardoo as dealt with in scientific journals, ethnological and 

 botanical works, and more especially the manuscript journals and 

 papers referring to the expedition, which for many years have 

 been preserved in the Melbourne Public Library. It would 

 occupy far too much space to record the mass of evidence 

 derived from these original sources, but I have selected what 

 appears to me to be of primary and sufficient importance to 

 decide the question, which 1 propose to deal with under the 

 two heads already indicated. 



* Mr. Lees, in his article, mentions the fact that there have been many 

 spe< ific names applied to various forms of Marsilea in Australia. It is now 

 aized that, though there may be local varieties, there is only one 

 i, which retains the name of Marsilea quadri folia. 



