The Accidental Terrarium

The return to the Wardian Case

I recieved an email from somebody (Aaron N.) who told me about a glass bottle he found that had a fern growing in it! This is a pretty neat thing and he also sent me a few pictures. You can see them below. But the remarkable thing about this is that it is very similar to how terrariums came to be. It was about 150 years ago that an English doctor and botanist was doing an experiment where he placed an insect in a jar so he could observe it. He was much surprised to see over time that a ferm sprouted inside and flourished! Well, this got him thinking about glass containers and plants. The rest is terrarium history! (His name was Ward and those glass containers are called "Wardian Cases". I have an article about that here: The History of terrariums and the Wardian Case)

So, Lets take a look at that fern in a bottle that Aaron found!