"Of <i>Marsiliaceae</i> we have well known examples in the nardoo (<i>Marsilea quadrifolia</i>, with many varieties), the foliage resembling that of a clover with four leaflets."
1878. R. Brough Smyth, `Aborigines of Victoria,' p. 209:
"They seem to have been unacquainted generally with the use, as a food, of the clover-fern, Nardoo, though the natives of the North Western parts of Victoria must have had intercourse with the tribes who use it, and could have obtained it, sparingly, from the lagoons in their own neighbourhood."
1879. J. D. Wood, `Native Tribes of South Australia,' p. 288:
"Ardoo, often described by writers as Nardoo. A very hard seed, a flat oval of about the size of a pea. It is crushed for food."
1879 (about). `Queensland Bush Song':
"Hurrah for the Roma Railway!
Hurrah for Cobb and Co.!
Hurrah, hurrah for a good fat horse
To carry me Westward Ho!
To carry me Westward Ho! my boys;
That's where the cattle pay,
On the far Barcoo, where they eat nardoo,
A thousand miles away."
1879. S. Gason, in `The Native Tribes of South Australia,' p. 288:
"<i>Ardoo</i>. Often described in news papers and by writers as Nardoo. A very hard seed, a flat oval of about the size of a split pea; it is crushed or pounded, and the husk winnowed. In bad seasons this is the mainstay of the native sustenance, but it is the worst food possible, possessing very little nourishment, and being difficult to digest."
1882. Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods, `Proceedings of the of the Linnaean Society of New South Wales,' p. 82 [Botanical Notes on Queensland]: