Wardian Case

The story of a nineteenth-century invention (essentially a tiny greenhouse) that allowed for the first time the movement of plants around the world, feeding new agricultural industries, the commercial nursery trade, botanic and private gardens, invasive species, imperialism, and more. Roses, jasmine, fuchsia, chrysanthemums, and rhododendrons bloom in gardens across the world, and yet many of the most common varieties have roots in Asia. How is this global flowering possible? In 1829, surgeon and amateur naturalist Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward placed soil, dried leaves, and the pupa of a sphinx moth into a sealed glass bottle, intending to observe the moth hatch. But when a fern and meadow grass sprouted from the soil, he accidentally discovered that plants enclosed in glass containers could survive for long periods without watering. After four years of experimentation in his London home, Ward created traveling glazed cases that would be able to transport plants around the world. Following a test run from London to Sydney, Ward was proven correct: the Wardian case was born, and the botanical makeup of the world’s flora was forever changed.   In our technologically advanced and globalized contemporary world, it is easy to forget that not long ago it was extremely difficult to transfer plants from place to place, as they often died from mishandling, cold weather, and ocean salt spray. In this first book on the Wardian case, Luke Keogh leads us across centuries and seas to show that Ward’s invention spurred a revolution in the movement of plants—and that many of the repercussions of that revolution are still with us, from new industries to invasive plant species. From the early days of rubber, banana, tea, and cinchona cultivation—the last used in the production of the malaria drug quinine—to the collecting of beautiful and exotic flora like orchids in the first great greenhouses of the United States Botanic Garden in Washington, DC, and England’s Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, the Wardian case transformed the world’s plant communities, fueled the commercial nursery trade and late nineteenth-century imperialism, and forever altered the global environment.

“Environmental historian Keogh charts the history of the Wardian case, a traveling greenhouse, in his fascinating debut. . . . Any gardener fascinated by history will find this well-told story fruitful.” , “Explores how a humble box made of wood and glass changed the course of world history. . . . [A] well-balanced, thoughtful account. . . . Keogh carefully teases out the connections between this innovation and its multiple consequences. . . . An in-depth study that will suit detail-oriented gardeners and natural history buffs.”, "An airtight box built in the late 1820s of glass panes and a wooden frame, the Wardian case was ingenious in its construction and application. Its inventor, an amiable English physician and amateur botanist named Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, discovered that plants rooted in moist soil, then hermetically sealed in the box, and that box placed in a sunny location, could grow for weeks, even months, with little maintenance. . . . Keogh tracks the preeminent role, for better or worse, that the Wardian case played over the next century, first in the creation of many of the world’s major botanic gardens, then in the development of a massive international market for nonnative plants, resulting in the colonization of nations for the cultivation of cash crops and the often-ruinous spread of plant pests, diseases, and invasive species. If the Wardian case has long been abandoned for the air-freighting of plant material, Keogh's bittersweet history reveals just how impactful that simple box remains today.", “In The Wardian Case, Keogh covers the Ripping Yarns-style consequences of its use: from plant hunters sending back specimens to British nurseries and a gardening public hungry for new ornamental species such as rhododendrons, camellias and fuchsias, the huge economic benefits for empire builders—not only the British (including in Keogh’s native Australia) but French and German and the new territories of the United States. Commercial agricultural crops such as coffee, cocoa, tea, rubber, bananas, and cinchona (from which antimalarial quinine made) were transplanted to continents far from their native home. And, very much in tune with today’s gimlet revisionist eye on colonial history, Keogh examines the dark side of this. While the colonists and investors may have reaped the benefits of these new plantations (sometimes with crops smuggled from their home countries), the indigenous people lost their precious lands to mile-after-mile of monoculture, and were often used as indentured labor in the harshest of conditions.”, "Engrossing, well-illustrated. . . . The tires on your car. The tea in your cup. The exotic plants in your garden or decorating your home. These and many more everyday items that have become part of our lives trace their roots to Ward’s eureka moment. But Keogh’s meticulous, globe-trotting investigation is a sobering reminder of the profound impact humans have had on the planet simply by moving plants."

Luke Keogh is a curator and historian. Among his many awards and prizes are the New South Wales Premier’s General History Prize, the Sargent Award from the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University, and the Maurice Daumas Prize from the International Committee for the History of Technology. Currently he is lecturer in history at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia. For more information, visit www.lukekeogh.com