From Ferdinand von Mueller to the Gardeners' Chronicle   [Sep 1887]

Eastern Gippsland, "the Australian Switzerland," is the home of this magnificent plant, where it attains occasionally a height of 40 feet, and being usually arborescent is unlike its compeer, T. speciosissima, which seems always of shrubby growth, though it becomes sometimes rather tall also. What gives the Victorian Waratah a special horticultural interest — in which, however, to some extent, the Tasmanian one, T. truncata, also shares — is the hardiness of the species. Suppose that in the lowlands of Britain, in sheltered positions, our Waratah could be grown in the open air! What a picture — Himalayan Rhododendrons, Palm-like Dracophyllums, and Richeas from Tasmania, and this gorgeous Telopea grouped together scenically with a sheltering background of verdure, and kept moist by some brooklet springing out of artificial rocks!

The Victorian Waratah is specifically quite distinct from its Tasmanian congener, both of which I have studied in their native haunts. It is restricted to elevations between 3000 and 4000 feet, as far as I am as yet aware; tracks into this tourists' paradise here having only recently been cut by Mr. Merrah¹ for mining exploration.

When, in 1860, I first entered this subalpine country (only now explored throughout by the gentleman named), and then saw the Victorian Telopea in all its glory, it reminded me of the Oreades of ancient mythology, as their emblems in the vegetable world.² This Telopea and Crinum flaccidum are the two plants which bear the largest flowers in the native vegetation of this colony.

Baron Sir F. v. Mueller.

Telopea oreades

Telopea speciosissima

Telopea truncata

Rhododendron

Dracophyllum

Richea