In Wrighting Old Wrongs, Rebecca Fuller crafted a Wardian case. What was it and why were they important? The answer is at the bottom of a Research Rabbit Hole!

During the 19^th century botanists were frustrated by the difficulties transporting exotic plants. 95% of specimens did not survive the long sea journeys.  Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, physician and botanist, published the first working solution to the problem, though he came by it more by accident than intention.

Ward kept a substantial herbarium (collection of preserved pant specimens) as well as a fern garden. The latter suffered due to the rampant London air pollution. He also kept moth cocoons in sealed glass bottles. One of those bottles ended up with a little soil at the bottom which contained some grass seed and a fern spore. He noticed they germinated, but did not recognize the implications, until four years later when the jar’s seal failed and the plants died from exposure to the London air.

The glass container had protected the plants from the acidic atmosphere of Victorian London. But would that be possible on a larger scale?

The First Wardian Case

Ward had a carpenter build a larger, glazed case with tight-fitting seals in which to grow his ferns. The plants thrived. Following that success, he wrote On the Growth of Plants in Closely Glazed Cases, in 1842. (Despite a Scottish botanist, A. A. Maconochie, creating a similar object nearly a decade earlier. Maconochie failed to publish about his discovery, so Ward got the credit for discovering what we now call the terrarium.)

In 1843, Ward partnered with George Loddiges, a nursery owner in East London. They shipped delicate plants, including ferns, form Sydney, Australia on an 8-month long sea voyage, around the Cape of Good Hope. Left unwatered in their Wardian cases and stored on the deck of the ship, the plants endured temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 100F. They arrived in London not just alive, but in very healthy condition.

A Botanic Revolution

This unprecedented success set in motion a revolution in commercial plant transportation that had numerous, unforeseen consequences. On a small scale, Wardian cases began appearing in fashionable drawing rooms hosting ferns and orchids that were difficult to grow in polluted air.

On a much larger scale, Wardian cases broke up a number of geographic agricultural monopolies. In the 1840’s they were used to smuggle tea plants out of China which would end the British dependency on China for tea. In 1860, the chinchona plant, the source of quinine to treat malaria, was smuggled out of South America using Wardian cases. 1870s saw the rubber tree shipped from Brazil to  Sri Lanka and Malaya to start rubber plantations. The Wardian case was also instrumental in making coffee, sugar, mangos and bananas more widely available to consumers.

Internationally known botanic garden, Kew Gardens in London, used Wardian cases to ship plants until 1962 when new plant quarantine laws restricted international plant transport.

And that is the (short) story of how an accidental discovery led to major economic and agriculture upheavals around the world. One never knows where the rabbit hole will lead!

References

Avis-Riordan Katie. The Wardian case: Botany game changer. Kew. December 6, 2019. March 27, 2024. https://www.kew.org/read-and-watch/how-wardian-case-changed-botanical-world

Brain, Jessica. The Wardian Case. Historic UK. March 27, 2024. https://www.historic-uk.com/CultureUK/Wardian-Case/

 Giles, Juliet. The History of terrariums: the Wardian Case. Garden’s Illustrated.Accessed March 27, 2024. https://www.gardensillustrated.com/plants/the-history-of-terrariums-the-wardian-case