LITERATURE. 



D.") 



A NATIONAL FLOWER. 



m 



AN AMERICAN NATIONAL FLOWER. 



HAT constitutes a national tlower? Various reasons have been 



ach'anced l>y the different advocates for a particuhir flower for this 



special pur})ose, and, as human nature is so constituted, there will 



always be a variance in opinions, and a unanimity ot ideas is perhaps too much 



to expect. 



The ancient Greeks, As^yrians, Egyptians, &c., probably had their battles 

 over this subject, and even England had its Wars of the Roses. The Scotchman 

 got ovei his differences of opinion by adapting the Thistle for his Coat-of-Arms, 

 and wearing the Heather in his coat on his national lioliday — -Xew Year's Day. 

 This divided choice is a good one, for in both cases each serves its own particular 

 purpose admirably. The Heather is a most unsuitable flower for heraldry, and 

 would be lost on armorial bearings, for it has nothing distinctive enough for 

 conventionalisation, and its identity w(juld be lost in any form of Decorative Art. 

 The Thistle as a national emblem is all right, and fulfils in every way the require- 

 ments of a national flower, according to the American standard, as shown by his 

 desiderata below. 



However, the fact remains that for all the time since the foundation of the 

 colony — over loo years — with a free hand for students of Art to select from the 

 native flora a plant, one that lent itself for more decorative treatment than any 

 other, the consensus of choice fell upon the \\'aratah, and one sees this embodied 

 in times out oi number in all directions. 



It was the lovers and workers in Ancient Art that chose the Lotus, Acanthus, 

 &c., and if they had had so lovely a specimen of Nature as the Waratah. what 

 would they not have done with it in the Art productions to give it a national 

 character? The expression, "the land of the Waratah," applies to Australia, 

 and no other ; it is Australia's very own. 



In the Wattle, Australia has not a monoj^oly like the Waratah, for Africa 

 has over one hundred native wattles, and it also occurs in America, East and 

 West Indies, and the Islands. 



Then, again, it is not too much to say tliat throughout tlie wiiole botanical 

 world the Waratah is probably unsurpassed as a flower for decorative purposes, 

 and it is impossible to so conventionalise it out of recognition— a great feature 

 in a national flower. 



