Also war-ra-taw, warrataw, warratah. [Native Australian name.]
1. A name for Australian shrubs of the genus Telopea (N.O. Proteaceæ), esp. T. speciosissima and T. orcades, which bear crimson or scarlet flowers in terminal clusters; also, the flower.
1793. J. E. Smith, Bot. New Holland, 19 (Morris). The most magnificent plant which the prolific soil of New Holland affords is, by common consent both of Europeans and natives, the Waratah.
1801. P. G. King, Let. Sir. J. Banks, 25 Aug., in Hist. Rec. N.S.W. (1896), IV. 514. I have also sent … a box of waratahs.
1802. D. Collins, Acc. N. S. Wales, II. 66. Ben-nil-long assisted at the ceremony, placing the head of the corpse, by which he stuck a beautiful war-ra-taw.
1830. Hobart, Town Almanack, 66. That magnificent shrub called Warrataw or tulip tree and its beautiful scarlet flowers.
1885. ‘Wanderer’ [Sir Henry Parkes], Beauteous Terrorist, etc., 62.
| And the waratahs in state, | |
| With their queenly heads elate, | |
| And their flamy blood-red crowns, | |
| And their stiff-frill’d emerald gowns. |
2. A variety of the camellia. In full waratah camellia.
1824. Loudon, Encycl. Gard., § 6613. Camellia … double white waratah.
1866. Treas. Bot., II. 207/2. The anemone-flowered or Waratah Camellia.
