WARDIAN CASES 85 



Ward had buried the chrysalis of a large 

 moth in earth in a wide-mouthed bottle, 

 covered the mouth of the bottle, placed the 

 bottle in a window, and waited for the chrysalis 

 to hatch. Then he noticed that little plants 

 began to sprout and grow in the glass bottle, 

 which admitted sunlight, but shut out all 

 draughts, and the dry, dusty, dirty air of the 

 street. So a larger " Wardian " case was 

 made. Plants throve in it. Friends were 

 told of the discovery. Faraday lectured on it 

 at the Royal Institution ; and Ward wrote his 

 book on The Growth of Plants in Closely- 

 Glazed Cases. 



It was a discovery of the greatest importance. 

 Hitherto but few of the plants packed in boxes 

 survived a long voyage. Ward showed that in 

 Wardian cases they were not only unhurt by 

 salt spray, wind or snow, but that they required 

 no water. 



By means of these Wardian cases Chinese 

 bananas were introduced into Samoa and Fiji. 

 Robert Fortune, ex-curator of the Physic 

 Garden , transported 20 ,000 tea plants in Wardian 

 cases from Shanghai to the Himalayas. Count- 

 less young Cinchona trees crossed over in them 

 from the New World to the Old, and gave 

 quinine to India. Short-lived seeds could now 

 be sown in Wardian cases before leaving their 

 own country, and travel as safely as a child in 

 its cradle round the world ; and the Wardian 

 case in the Physic Garden (full of filmy ferns) 

 shows that these glass boxes take the venom 

 out of London air. 



Ward's friends felt that his discovery ought 



