APPLIED ART. i, 



The illustrations here given will show tlu't there is a distinct effort to depart 

 fiom this ancient conventionalisation, but we want a more emphatic one, and in 

 this connection a National School of Design, so much needed now, has a magnificent 

 field in which to work, and wc look hojietully to piesent and future generations 

 to evolve a typical school of design just as the old Egyptians and desks did, 

 for the Australian has at hand forms as pure and adai)tal)le as had these older 

 nations. 



In this volume each spece; of Waiatah is described, and illustrations are 

 given of its utilisation by the various aitists who have left their impiess on 

 Australian decoration in the field of Applied Art. 



»&^* 



(a) The New South Wales Waratah 



(Telopea speciosissima, R.Br.) 

 Figure I. 



HISTORICAL. 



Perhaps no native plant-name has become so interwoven in Australian 

 history as that given by the aborigines to this unique specimen of our floral 

 world. Nor is such to be wondered at wlien one views the species in its autoch- 

 thonous habitat, flourishing in all its glory and pride of colour among its less 

 fortunate congeners of the Australian bush. 



Australia boasts, and rightly so, of a wonderful tlora with its beauties, 

 variety of colours, and its uniqueness, all of which readily appealed to the 

 artistic instincts of the earliest botanists who landed on its sliores, as well as the 

 first settlers, whilst the stories taken back to the Old Country concerning our 

 native flora aroused great curiosity. 



Such, then, was the effect of our flora on the minds of the white man when 

 he first arrived here, but at the same time he found in the " savage breast " there 

 also existed an admiration for Nature's botanical wonders and a discriminating 

 one, too, for it was discovered that the aborigine had already made his selection 

 of the king and pride of the bush, — his choice resting on the majestic Waratah. 



In 1793 there was published in London a work by Dr. Smith on the Zoology 

 and Botany of New Holland, which was illustrated with some very fine hand- 

 coloured plates taken from life, and there amongst the latter section of Natural 

 History figures the Waratah. This plate has been reproduced by the aid of 



