19th-Century Lady Botanist Kit: The Wardian Case

A 19th-century lady naturalist woman of science would not have been kitted out without a Victorian Wardian case (above), "a sealed protective container for plaints, an early version of the terrarium" invented by Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, who wrote, in 1842, On the Growth of Plants in Closely Sealed Cases.

In Cultivating Women, Cultivating Science: Flora's Daughters and Botany in England 1760-1860 by historian Ann Shier I read about the delightfully-named Thereza Mary Dillwyn Llewelyn (1834-1926) astronomer, plant collector, botanist, and "the most accomplished field botanist of the day." Certainly she had many Wardian cases because "she compiled an herbarium and wrote a botanical report that was read at the Linnean Society in 1857 when she was just twenty-three years old."

Thereza, almost closed in by greenery here, corresponded with Charles Darwin.

Also in 1857, James Shirley Hibberd, "one of the most popular and successful gardening writers of the Victorian era wrote,  Rustic Adornments for Homes of Taste (below). It recommended, as you can imagine, loads of ferns and ivy in Wardian cases. 

Ferns ferns ferns.

[Planting a Wardian case: How-To.]




Photo credits:

National Library of Wales dil00063 (pb08732/35) Rhif cofnod / Record no.: 3590003

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection, Ward, N. B. (Nathaniel Bagshaw), 1791-1868.