THE TECHNOLOGIST. [Sept. 1, 1864- 



90 



ON THE « NARDOO " PLANT OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA. 



BY DAVID MOORE, M.R.I.A. 

 CURATOR OF THE ROYAL DUBLIN SOCIETY'S BOTANIC GARDEN. 



In the paper which I have now the honour to read before this sectional 

 meeting of the Royal Dublin Society, my object will be to convey some 

 idea of the nature and appearance of the plant which produces the food 

 called " Nardoo " by the Aborigines of Australia, the position which it 

 occupies in systematic botanic arrangement, and point out the parts of 

 it which contain the nutritive matter. 



The Australian mail which brought the sad tidings of the fate of the 

 last exploring party, brought at the same time two small packets of the 

 "Nardoo," which formed a portion of that taken from Cooper's Creek to 

 Melbourne by the party who rescued King, the only survivor. Valen- 

 tine Hellicar, Esq., to whom we are indebted for one of the packets, 

 sent it to his sister, Mrs. Ball, of Granby Row, with a request that it 

 would be sent to me for the Botanical Garden, which that lady imme- 

 diately complied with, and at the same time enclosed a short abstract 

 taken from an article published in the ' Ballarat Star ' newspaper, giving 

 a brief description of the plant. The fact of the fruit of a cryptogamous 

 plant containing a sufficient quantity of nutritive substance to support 

 human life during a lengthened period, at once struck me as being a 

 very remarkable circumstance. It has been long known that the thallus 

 of some, and the rhizomes of others, contain nutritive matter, which 

 leads to their being occasionally used as food by the natives of various 

 parts of the world ; but this I believe to be the only instance on record 

 of the fruit of any of them being employed for that purpose. Several 

 specimens of Lichens and Algse afford examples of cryptogamous plants 

 which have the thallus nutritive, whilst Ferns have nutritive rhizomes. 

 Among the latter, Pterin esculenta is largely used by the natives of New 

 Holland, and Cyathea medullaris by the New Zealanders. Mr. Backhouse, 

 in his work on the former country, speaking of Pteris, says : " Pigs feed 

 on this root when it has been turned up by the plough, and in sandy 

 soils they will themselves turn up the earth in search of it. The Abori- 

 gines roast it in the ashes, peel off its black skin with their teeth, and 

 eat it with their roasted kangaroo, in the same manner Europeans do 

 bread. The root of the Tara-fern possesses much nutritive matter, yet 

 it is to be observed that persons who have been reduced to the use of it 

 in long excursions through the bush have become very weak, though it 

 has prolonged life." Now, this last sentence has an important bearing 

 on our present subject, affording as it does strong presumptive evidence 

 that the nutritive matter in the rhizome or stem of the Fern and that 

 contained in the fruit of the " Nardoo " are similar substances. Poor 

 Buike and his companions were able to subsist on the latter during a 



