I70 Field Naturalists' Club — Proceedings. [vJi"^xxxiv 



of two plants new for Victoria — viz., Logania longij'olia, R. Br., 

 v^ar. sitbsessilis, collected by the late Mr. C. F. Hawkins at 

 Murrayville (Wimmera), August, 1917, and Solamtm violaccum, 

 R. Br., collected by Rev. A. J. Maher at Mount Drummer, near 

 Genoa (East Gippsland), October, 1914. 



PAPER READ. 



By Professor Sir Baldwin Spencer, K.C.M.G., F.R.S., entitled 

 " What is Nardoo ? " 



The author, in expressing his pleasure at being able again to 

 attend a meeting of the Club, said that it was about thirty-one 

 years since he was first present at a meeting, and he could not 

 but acknowledge his indebtedness to members of the Club for 

 their great help in many ways during that long period. 



He said that some three years ago Mr. E. H. Lees, C.E., 

 F.R.A.S., had contributed a paper to tlK> Club under the same 

 title, in which he claimed that the word " Nardoo " was not 

 the name of a plant, as usually understood, but the name for 

 a food obtained from several plants. Since the publication of 

 that paper he had given the question considerable attention, 

 and would endeavour to sliow that Mr. Lees was wrong in his 

 conclusions. He quoted from a number of authorities, and 

 finally from the MS. journal of Dr. Beckler, of the Burke and 

 Wills expedition, now preserved in the Melbourne Public 

 Library, and could come to no other conclusion than that the 

 word " Nardoo," used by the natives of the Cooper's Creek 

 district, is applied to the plant Marsilea quadrifolia and its 

 products only, and that the food " Nardoo " used by Burke 

 and Wills was made from the sporocarps of that plant. 



The author referred to the growing specimen of Marsilea 

 quadrifolia exhibited on the table by Mr. F. Chapman, and said 

 that the reason many persons had not succeeded in iinding the 

 sporocarps attached to plants growing in the latitude of Mel- 

 bourne was that, owing to the much moister climate, the plant 

 had no need to produce a large number of spores in order to 

 ensure its reproduction. He exhibited actual specimens of 

 sporocarps obtained at Cooper's Creek by the late Dr. A. W. 

 Howitt. 



Considerable interest was taken in the paper, and many 

 questions were put to the author at its conclusion. 



Mr. (i. A. Keartland stated that he had found the i)lant in 

 question on the Fit/roy River, North-West Australia, and, 

 although Ik- infjuired diligently, liad not heard it called 

 " Nardoo " t)y the natives. 



Mr. A. I). Hardy, F.L.S., said that the Marsilea grew freely 

 around the Kilby Lagoon, ni'ar the Yarra, at East Kcw, where 

 members could easily obtain specimens. 



