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BOTANICAL HISTORY OF THE FLORAL EkBLEA/S OF AUSTRALIA BY Sophie C. Ducker HIS PAPER CELEBRATES THE 40Th ANNIVERSARY of the Baillieu Library and at the same time shows how books in libraries are essential for the elucidation of botanical problems. It is the older generation of librarians and botanists that we have to thank, however, that we can use today their priceless heritage invested in the older books so necessary for stories of exploration and the science of botanical determination. To show how exploration and botanical history are integrated I have chosen the plants used as floral emblems of the States of the Commonwealth. All the floral emblems of Australia were chosen after Federation and in the 20th century, but the botanical histories of the plants of the emblems go back to the earliest exploration of Australia. They all show the diversity of the history of the states of Australia and the differing progress of botanical exploration of the regions. The descriptions and illustrations are varied not only in age, quality and origin but also in availability, so I have chosen only four pertinent illustrations. THE COMMONWEALTH century. Mitchell was later sur- veyor general of New South Wales. EMBLEM Early explorers always sent their The floral emblem of the Common- trophies to their home country wealth of Australia is the flowers of where they were then described. the golden wattle Acacia pycnantha The English botanist George Bentham, which is a shrub widely Bentham (1800-1884) named 228 spread in south eastern Australia Australian acacias, including A. and particularly plentiful in Victoria pycnantha in the London Journal of in open woodland, where it grows Botany in 1842. It was he, assisted up to ten metres high flowering in by Ferdinand Mueller the cold winter months. It was first (1825-1896), who later wrote collected by Thomas Mitchell Flora Australiensis. (1792-1855) on his exploring expe- The first Australian illustration dition into New South Wales in the of the golden wattle was published first half of the 19th century. The relatively late by J. E. Brown in the story is told in his Three continued on page 26 Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia (1838). This is an important document because it pro- vides the first description of the Fig. 1 : The floral emblem of Australia: Golden wattle in John E. Brown, The interior of New South Wales and Forest Flora of South Australia, Victoria in the early part of last 1886-1891. (Special Collections, University of Melbourne Library.) THE UNIVERSITY OF MELBOURNE LIBRARY JOURNAL • 1 999 25 from page 25 La Boussole and L'Astrolabe to Forest Flora of South Australia explore the Pacific. After a visit in 1884 (Fig. 1). Since 1908 it to Port Jackson in January 1788 has been incorporated in they disappeared without a trace. Commonwealth floral emblems The riddle of the fate of La such as stamps, the Order of Perouse and the general interest Australia insignia and presenta- in New Holland led the king to tions made by the dispatch another expedition with Commonwealth, but designated two ships Recherche and officially as late as 1988 (see Esperance under Bruny Boden, 1985 and for other D'Entrecasteaux, with the emblem data). botanist La Billiardiere (1755-1834) on board. On his return to France, La Billiardiere THE EMBLEM OF published an account of the journey (1800) and the first flora NEW SOUTH WALES of Australia (1804-1807). While Famous is the New South Wales in northern Tasmania he col- floral emblem the waratah, lected the Australian blue gum, Telopea speciosissima (Sm.) R. Eucalyptus globulus Labill in Br. This plant was first collected Recherche Bay in 1792; back in New South Wales in 1791 by home it was described and illus- John White (1756?-1832), a trated in his account (1800). The naval surgeon and also a natu- first Australian illustration (Fig. ralist who arrived here with the 3), however, is by the artist and First Fleet in 1788. It was writer Louisa Anne Meredith described and figured in Smith's Fig. 2: The floral emblem of New South Wales: (1812-1895) in her lovely book Waratah in James Edward Smith, Botany (1793) as Embothrium A Specimen of the Some of My Bush Friends in Botany of New Holland, 1793. speciosissimum Sm. (Fig. 2). (Grimwade Collection, Tasmania published in London University of Melbourne Library.) The famous English botanist in 1860 and dedicated to Queen Robert Brown (1773-1858), Victoria. It is shown intertwined who sailed with Flinders round with the love creeper Australia, renamed the waratah Telopea Comosperma volubile Labill. The from the Greek telepos "seen from afar" Tasmanian blue gum is found widely in (1810). The brilliant flower heads Australians from other states were Tasmania but also in eastern Victoria appear in the spring on a large shrub unable to identify with the emblem so and south eastern New South Wales and which is found in New South Wales, the wattle was chosen in the armorial has been used extensively for plantation particularly in the Blue Mountains and bearings of the Commonwealth of planting. The handsome tall tree with in central coastal regions. At the turn of Australia. The waratah was proclaimed smooth bark is useful for timber and the last century there was a move afoot the floral emblem of New South Wales honey production. It was declared the to name the waratah as the floral in 1962. Tasmanian floral emblem in 1962. emblem of Australia. Sir Baldwin Spencer (1860-1929) and possibly Ferdinand Mueller were in favour of it THE TASMANIAN EMBLEM THE VICTORIAN EMBLEM (see Mulvaney and Calaby, 1985). So it Although the Dutch and English decorates the Mueller Medal, designed La Billardiere is also the collector and explorers were here early and collected author of by Spencer for his friend and estab- Epacris impressa Labill, the lished in 1899 to be given annually by some isolated plants and animals, it is common heath, and he published it in the Australasian Association for the really the French who did the major his second book on the flora of New Advancement of Science for early recording of our Australian flora Holland in 1805. It was collected by La "Researches in Natural Science". and fauna. Cook's expedition in the Billiardiere in 1792 on the same expedi- Endeavour, with Sir Joseph Banks and tion under the leadership of There was a general fashion in the Dr Daniel Solander on board, fired the D'Entrecasteaux. The type locality is the use of the waratah in Australian decora- imagination of King Louis XVI of same as that of the Tasmanian blue gum tive art (see Baker, 1915), but France. He sent La Perouse in the ships in capite Van-Diemen, namely northern 26 1HE UNIVERSITY OF ME1BOupNE L BPARY JOURNAL • 1 999 Tasmania. This time an artist on the animals he collected, described and annual or bi-annual creeper with bril- expedition, Piron, gives us the first illus- illustrated was the flower of the Sturt liant red flowers and found in tration, but there is practically no infor- pea (Fig. 4). This was collected on Queensland, the Northern Territory, mation known about him Frans Stafleu, Rosemary Island, the present day East Western Australia and South Australia the editor of the facsimile edition, writes Lewis Island in the Dampier where it was declared the floral emblem in 1966, Archipelago. His plant collection will be in 1961. With the preparations for the Piron (fl. 1791-1795). No particulars are on loan from the Oxford Herbarium for tercentenary and special emphasis on known to me of Piron, the artist of the the tercentenary celebrations in Perth Dampier a new name, Dampia formosa expedition, except that he, like La this year. However, the type of Sturt pea (G. Don) A. S. George, has been sug- Billardiere, belonged to the republican was collected at the Ashburton River by gested because the flower differs so faction on board la Recherche and l'Esperance. The drawings by Piron the marine surveyor Phillip Parker King much from the characters of the those of were probably mostly made on the spot. (1791-1856) during his first exploration other members of the genus Swainsona The illustration in the book is an of the Western Australian coast in the (see A. S. George, "Willdampia, a New engraving by the sculptor Plee. The Mermaid (see A. S. George, William Generic Name For Sturt Pea"). common heath is also men- Dampier in New Holland). tioned in Mitchell's 1838 book into the explorations into eastern WESTERN AUSTRALIA'S Australia because the plant is common and widespread in EMBLEM southern Victoria occurring Anigozanthos manglesii D. Don, mainly in heath land. It occurs Mangles kangaroo paw, is the floral also in South Australia and emblem of Western Australia, des- southern New South Wales. It ignated in 1960. This characteristic flowers all year but mainly in Australian plant is found only in the winter months in red, pink Western Australia from Shark Bay and white forms. It was declared to the south. Anigozanthos was first the Victorian floral emblem in collected and named by La 1958. Victoria was the first state Billardiere (1800) when he dis- to proclaim officially a floral cusses the unequal parts of the emblem. flower, hence, it is believed, anis, Greek for unequal. A. manglesii was first collected by James THE EMBLEM OF Mangles (1786-1867) at the Swan River in 1833 when he stayed with SOUTH AUSTRALIA his cousin Ellen Stirling née A plant which recalls the Mangles, the wife of Sir James explorer Charles Sturt Stirling (1791-1865), first lieu- (1795-1869) is the well known tenant governor of Western Sturt pea Swainsona formosa Australia.

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