Did you ever take a walk in a forest or in the wooded area of a park? Do you remember the coolness, the many shades of green, and the woodsy smells? Take another such walk. And this time pay special attention to the forest floor. Look for plants that trail along the ground and touch the velvety carpet made by the many mosses. Look for patches of lichen clinging to rocks, for mushrooms and other fungi on bits of bark. Look for little tree seedlings and the big parent trees nearby. Find clumps of ferns, and search for baby ferns.
Would you like to capture some of this loveliness and bring it indoors? You can by making a terrarium.
A terrarium is many things. It is a garden under glass. It is a landscape in miniature. It is a natural arrangement of plants. It is a place where plants can be grown all year round. It is a collection of plants that belong to the same plant community and need the same conditions and therefore grow well together. It may even house an animal or two. You take care of a terrarium as you would a regular garden. And yes, the terrarium is an important scientific discovery.
Like so many other important scientific discoveries, the idea of the terrarium was the result of an accident. In the 1820’s, Dr. Nathaniel B. Ward, a physician who was interested in small living things, put a chrysalis on some moist earth and placed it in a covered glass jar to watch it develop into a butterfly. A fern began to grow in the moist earth. This fern became more important to Dr. Ward than the development of the butterfly.
As he watched the fern grow, Dr. Ward began to wonder whether it was growing so well just because it was in a closed jar. (His records tell us that this same fern lived almost 4 years before it was accidentally destroyed.) He began to a great deal of experimenting and grew many plants in glass containers.
He discovered that this was a good way of transporting rare plants from faraway places. The covered glass containers kept the plants from drying out and protected them from drafts and sudden changes of temperature. His glass gardens became popular as home decorations because they were so lovely and needed so little care.
They came to be known as Wardian cases. A terrarium is really a Wardian case. Many people think that we should remember and honor Dr. Ward by using the old name.
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