54 LITERATURE. 



to design, they would by a large majority select the Waratah, just as the 

 ancient artists did the Lotus, the Honeysuckle, and the Acanthus. And my 

 conclusion is no fanciful one, for I have, I believe, the largest collection of 

 photographs illustrating our native ffora in Applied Art, and it is invariably 

 noticed that the Waratah is preferred amongst our native flowers. It is 

 found in Sydney carved in stone, times out of number, on many of our public 

 buildings, in coloured windows, iron and woodwork, friezes, &c. It is on 

 regimental badges, postcards, Coats-of-Arms — in fact, during the loo years 

 of the colony, it was engrafted into the community as the national flower ; but 

 now it would appear that a rival Richmond has entered the held in the Wattle. 



The greatest objection raised against ths Waratah is that the man at Mil- 

 parinka has never seen one. Neither does it grow in South Australia or Western 

 Austraha ; but here let me say that it is none the less admired there, for, during 

 a recent visit to South Australia, I saw it conventionalised in public institutions, 

 private houses, &c., as a frieze and wall-paper, and most charming designs they 

 were. 



Another objection advanced against the Waratah is that it is stiff ; but I 

 claim, as a cut flower and for heraldic purposes, it rivals the rose. 



At Melbourne the Waratah figures in decoration, and is more generally 

 known and conventionalised in many ways in Victoria than is thought to be the 

 case. 



However, it seems now established that the Watth is to figure on the 

 Australian Coat-of-Arms, which clears the way Tor New South Wales to continue 

 on its way with the Waratah as its national emblem, in which selection there is 

 no floral rival in the world ; and Walesians can, I am sure, with good grace now 

 let the gentle, drooping, unconventionalising Wattle pass for the straight, strong, 

 firm Waratah — the glory of our Australian bush. It is Australia's own, and the 

 envy of other nations as a national eml)lem. At the recent sale of pictures of 

 Australian flowers, in which both Wattle and Waratah figures, the latter sold 

 almost as soon as the sale opened. 



As an individual, I think Australia has lei: a grand opportunity pass of 

 a((|uiring an heraldic flower of unsurpassed merii: for this special purpose alone — 

 a flower that in its generic name, seen from afar, expresses the hope of all Austra- 

 lians that the glories of this continent shall be a light to the rest of the world. 



K. T. B. 



Sydney Morning Herald, September 24, 1910. 



