Am"jJu0ner;iP4a.ra1'}  London  Botanic  Gardens.  273 
den  about  three  weeks  ago,  nearly  the  whole  of  them  alive  and  flourishing. 
They  have  since  been  transplanted  by  Mr.  McLean,  who  has  charge  of  the 
garden  in  the  absence  of  Mr.  Cunningham  (gone  to  New  Zealand  botanizing) , 
and  all  are  doing  well. 
"The  complete  success  of  your  interesting  experiment  has  been  decidedly 
proved  ;  and  whilst  offering  you  my  congratulations  upon  this  agreeable  result, 
I  cannot  but  feel  some  little  degree  of  pride  and  pleasure  in  having  been  the 
instrument  selected  to  put  to  the  proof  so  important  a  discovery  to  the  botanical 
world. 
"  I  am,  Sir,  etc.,  etc., 
"  Charges  Mauard." 
"To  N.  B.  Ward,  Esq." 
It  was  Fortune,  however,  who  first  demonstrated  on  a  large  scale 
the  value  of  the  Wardian  case  in  transporting  living  plants,  and  the 
revolution  which  this  means  of  transport  brought  about  is  made 
evident  in  the  following  passage : — 
''Eighteen  glazed  cases  filled  with  the  most  beautiful  plants  of  northern 
China  were  placed  upon  the  poop  of  the  ship,  and  we  sailed  [from  Canton]  on 
the  22d  of  December  [1845].  After  a  long  but  favourable  voyage,  we  anchored 
in  the  Thames,  on  the  6th  of  May,  1846.  The  plants  arrived  in  excellent  order, 
and  were  immediately  conveyed  to  the  garden  of  the  Horticultural  Society  at 
Chiswick."  1 
As  a  contrast  to  this  we  have  it  on  record  that  in  18 19  only  one 
plant  in  a  thousand  had  survived  a  similar  voyage  under  the  old 
conditions. 
In  1848  Fortune  resigned  the  post  of  Curator  of  the  Chelsea 
Physic  Garden  to  enter  the  employ  of  the  East  India  Company. 
His  success  in  introducing  the  tea-plant  into  India  for  the  Company 
is  a  matter  of  common  knowledge,  as  is  also  Markham's  feat  with 
cinchona ;  and  both  of  these  achievements  were  only  made  possible 
by  the  application  of  Ward's  discovery.2 
After  Ward's  death,  in  1868,  the  work  o~  the  garden  languished 
owing  to  insufficient  funds,  and  although  Thomas  Moore,  the  Cura- 
1  "Three  years'  Wanderings  in  the  Northern  Provinces  of  China,  including 
a  visit  to  the  Tea,  Silk,  and  Cotton  Countries  :  with  an  account  of  the  Agri- 
culture and  Horticulture  of  the  Chinese,  New  Plants,  etc.,  by  Robert  Fortune, 
Botanical  Collector  to  the  Horticultural  Society  of  London."  London,  1847, 
p.  405. 
2  For  a  description  of  the  cases  used  by  Markham  see  his  "  Peruvian  Bark. 
A  popular  account  of  the  Introduction  of  Chinchona  cultivation  into  British 
India,"  London,  1880,  pp.  259-265,  where  a  short  comparison  is  also  made 
with  those  that  Fortune  employed. 
