Missouri Botanical 
Garden Bulletin 
Vol. II St. Louis, Mo., November, 1914 No. 11 
THE WARDIAN CASE 
Several valuable collections of economic plants, from all 
parts of the world, among them mangosteens from Ceylon 
and cycads from Australia, have been successfully imported 
by the Garden. The healthy condition in which the plants 
arrived after their long journey is to be attributed largely 
to the use of Wardian cases in the shipment. Without these 
cases it would have been well nigh impossible to add these 
living specimens to the Garden collection. 
This most satisfactory method of shipping living plants 
long distances we owe to Mr. N. B. Ward, F.L.S., of London, 
who conceived the idea in consequence of a simple incident 
which occurred in his laboratory in 1829. He states: “I 
buried the chrysalis of a sphinx in some moist mould con- 
tained in a wide mouthed bottle covered with a lid, watching 
the bottle from day to day. I observed that the moisture 
which during the heat of the day arose from the mould, 
became condensed on the internal surface of the glass, and 
returned whence it came; thus keeping the mould always 
in the same degree of humidity. About a week prior to the 
final change of the insect, a seedling fern (prothallus) and 
a grass made their appearance on the surface of the mould.” 
These two plants were kept in this jar for nearly four years, 
and Mr. Ward began a series of experiments in his labora- 
tory on growing plants in closed cases. 
About this time Mr. Ward’s attention was called to the 
loss, due apparently to a lack of light or of water or of both, 
of the entire collection of plants made by Menzies during 
his trip around the world. Thereupon Mr. Ward investi- 
gated means of conveying plants and seeds across the ocean. 
He states: “It was obvious that my new method offered a 
ready means of obviating all these difficulties, so far at least 
as regarded ferns, and plants growing in similar situations; 
and in the beginning of June, 1833, I filled two cases with 
ferns, grasses, etc., and sent them to Sydney in care of my 
zealous friend, Capt. Mallard.” The outcome of the experi- 
ment is given in a letter from the Captain in 1833. ae 
