NATHANIEL BAGSHAW WARD. 
NATHANIEL BacGsHAaw W kD, Fellow of the Royal and Lin- 
nzean societies, after whom, as its inventor, the Wardian case 
is named, died at the ripe age of seventy-seven years, on the 4th 
of June last. He was born in the east end of London, where 
his father was a medical practitioner of repute, and where for 
the greater part of his busy and most useful life he laboriously 
devoted himself to the same profession. About twenty years 
ago he exchanged the smoke-charged atmosphere and dingy 
dwellings of Wellclose Square for the pleasant and airy 
suburb of Clapham Rise, but still actively engaged almost to 
the last in professional practice, and in his various official 
duties, mainly in connection with the Apothecaries Society, 
filling in succession nearly all its important offices. The ren- 
ovation and even the maintenance of the celebrated A pothe- 
caries Garden at Chelsea — the oldest botanical establishment 
of the country —is probably mainly due to his counsels and 
exertions. We cannot here enter into the interesting history 
of the now familiar Wardian case, — a discovery which grew 
out of Mr. Ward’s persistent endeavors to cultivate the plants 
he delighted in under the smoke and soot of the dingiest part 
of London, and which resulted in providing for the poor as 
well as the rich denizens of the smoky towns of the old world 
the inexpensive but invaluable luxury or comfort of being sur- 
rounded at all seasons with growing plants and fresh flowers. 
Nor is the invention less applicable to house-culture, especially 
of Ferns, under the clearer and purer air of our own country 
rendered arid by the cold of winter, as hundreds could testify 
who have enjoyed the benefit, perhaps without knowing even 
the name of their benefactor. Equally important is the appli- 
cation of the Wardian case to the conveyance of living plants 
between distant countries. The writer well remembers the 
1 American Journal of Science and Arts, 2 ser., xlvii. 141. (1869.) 
