BROOKLYN BOTANIC GARDEN 
LEAFLETS 
Series X Brooklyn, N.Y., May 31, 1922. No. 5 
THE WARDIAN CASE: 
A DEVICE FOR GROWING PLANTS IN THE 
SCHOOLROOM OR LIVINGROOM 
A love of plants seems to be almost universal, for most of us 
like to have them about us in the house as well as out-of-doors, 
yet many people find it well-nigh impossible to keep plants 
indoors in a healthy condition. Particularly is this true of plants 
in the schoolroom, where they often lack care for a portion of 
each week, and, unless special provision is made, are apt to suffer 
during the long vacation?. 
There are many reasons whv these indoor plants often become 
sickly, droop and die, even though they receive constant care; 
but the chief causes are poor light, dryness of the air, and the 
presence of dust and gases. The need of light is, of course, 
essential : as to dryness of the air, this is probably more re- 
sponsible for the failure of indoor plants than any other cause. 
The cold air taken in from out-of-doors in the case of furnace- 
heated houses has a temperature varying from perhaps zero to 
40°. It becomes heated to 70° or over, and although the heating 
vastly increases its moisture-holding capacity, as a matter of fact 
it contains no more moisture than when it was a cold air. There- 
fore, it feels like a dry air, for its relative humidity is very low. 
“In Death Valley, California, one of the driest places on earth, 
the average relative humidity for five months, when the record 
was kept, was 23 ; yet this is but little less than the relative humidity 
of the air in the average furnace-heated house in winter.” * No 
wonder that we take cold after such air parches the membranes 
in our lungs, and we go forth at any moment into the sharp, 
chilling air out-of-doors. No wonder that plants also suffer in 
such a desert environment ! And so, for want of knowledge as to 
how to obviate these difficulties, the attempt to grow flowers or 
green things in the home or school is often regretfully abandoned. 
About ninety years ago, Nathaniel Ward, a London physician, 
stumbled upon a method of raising and keeping plants in an 
environment otherwise quite unsuited to them. As a child he 
had admired the old brick walls, often seen in English gardens, 
covered with mosses, ferns, and primroses; and had built one in 
* Salisbury. R. D.. Barrows, H H.. and Tower, W. S. The elements of neosr- 
raphy. N. Y., 1912. p. 90. 
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