50 AUSTRALIAN GRASSES AND PASTURE PLANTS 



They are widely and abundantly distributed over the contin- 

 ent. Most of them average about one foot in height, and are 

 good forage plants, which most kinds of stock eat with avidity, 

 their more or less pungent flavour contributing to their palat- 

 ability. Dairy cows giving milk, however, should not be 

 allowed to graze in pastures where these plants grow abun- 

 dantly, for when eaten freely they flavour both milk and butter. 

 All these plants when not too closely fed over, produce an 

 abundance of seed, which germinates readily after a good rain- 

 fall at almost any season of the year, and the resulting young 

 growth is a quantity of succulent herbage. 



Nardoo (Marsilea drummondii) is a plant of historical 

 interest, inasmuch as its fruit at one time formed, after pre- 

 paration, an important article of food for the aborigines, and 

 is still used by them in the far interior, and the unfortunate 

 explorers Burke and Wills tried to subsist on it, although 

 judging from Wills' journal, it does not appear to have afforded 

 them much nourishment. This dwarf, clover-like plant, 

 occurs in the interior of all the Australian States, generally on 

 the margins of swamps, or where water collects in shallow 

 pools after rain. When the water subsides the young plants 

 grow rapidly in the mud, and eventually cover the ground 

 with dense vegetation, reminding one of cultivated clover. 

 Stock of all kinds are extremely fond of this plant, which 

 is regarded as nutritious feed. 



Native Carrot is the popular name of an annual herb 

 (Daucus brachiatus) with herbaceous stems, often growing from 

 two to three feet high, but generally not so tall. It has 

 elegant, divided leaves, small flowers arranged in clusters, and 

 burr-like fruits, which are when ripe called "carrot burrs" 

 by stockmen. This plant is widely distributed over the 

 interior of Australia, growing on both rich and sandy country, 

 and in spring and early summer forms a large percentage of 

 the herbage on extensive areas. In a young state the native 



