The Wardian Case

The Wardian Case tells the story of a nineteenth-century invention, essentially a tiny greenhouse, that enabled the movement of plants around the world for the first time. This innovation fed new agricultural industries, the commercial nursery trade, botanic and private gardens, introduced invasive species, supported imperialism, and more.

Roses, jasmine, fuchsia, chrysanthemums, and rhododendrons bloom in gardens across the globe, yet many of these common varieties originated in Asia. How is this global flowering possible? In 1829, surgeon and amateur naturalist Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward placed soil, dried leaves, and the pupa of a sphinx moth into a sealed glass bottle, intending to observe the moth hatch. When a fern and meadow grass sprouted from the soil, he accidentally discovered that plants enclosed in glass containers could survive for long periods without watering.

After four years of experimentation in his London home, Ward created traveling glazed cases capable of transporting plants worldwide. Following a successful test run from London to Sydney, the Wardian case was born, forever changing the botanical makeup of the world's flora.

In our technologically advanced and globalised contemporary world, it is easy to forget that not long ago, transferring plants was extremely difficult, as they often succumbed to mishandling, cold weather, and ocean salt spray. In this first book on the Wardian case, Luke Keogh explores how Ward’s invention spurred a revolution in plant movement, with many repercussions still affecting us, from new industries to invasive plant species.

From the early days of rubber, banana, tea, and cinchona cultivation—the last used in producing the malaria drug quinine—to collecting beautiful and exotic flora like orchids in the first great greenhouses of the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, DC, and England’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Wardian case transformed the world’s plant communities. It fueled the commercial nursery trade and late nineteenth-century imperialism, forever altering the global environment.