42 AUSTRALIAN NATIVE PLANTS, 
The fruit is edible. (P. O’Shanesy.) This plant is not 
endemic in Australia. 
New South Wales and Queensland. 
133. Marsdenia Leichhardtiana, “v.47, (Syn. Leichhardtia 
australis, R..Br.), N.O., Asclepiadacee, B.FI., iv., 341. 
‘“‘Doubah”’ or “‘ Doobah”’ (aboriginal name for pods). It is the 
“ Carcular”’ of the Central Australian aboriginals. 
The milky unripe fruits of this tree are eaten by the abori- 
gines. In this state they are about the size of a large acorn, but 
more pointed at the ends. Sir Thomas Mitchell speaks of-the 
aboriginals as eating the fruits, seeds and all, but they were pro- 
nounced better roasted. 
All the colonies except Tasmania. 
134. Marsilea quadrifolia, Linn., N.O., Marsileacez, B.FI., vii. 
683 (where see synonymy). 
* Clover-fern,” ‘* Nardoo.”’ 
In the summer months the swamps containing this plant dry 
up, and it withers completely away, but the spore cases remain. 
In former years (and even now in remote districts) the natives used 
to collect these, grind them between two stones, so as to make a 
kind of flour or meal, which they made into paste and used as an 
article of food. Nardoo contains but little nutritive matter, and 
must be exceedingly difficult to digest. Nevertheless, the fruits 
of this plant (or perhaps Sesbanta aculeata—see Bailey’s remarks 
under that head) were the diet the Burke and Wills expedition 
were at one period reduced to. The following quotation from 
Wills’ Journal is taken from Brough Smyth's Aborigines of 
Victorta :—‘‘I cannot understand this nardoo at all; it certainly 
will not agree with me in any form. We are now reduced to it 
alone, and we manage to get from four to five pounds a day 
between us. . . . It seems to give us no nutriment. 
Starvation on nardoo is by no means very unpleasant, but for 
the weakness one feels and the utter inability to move oneself, 
