The Beldam
The classic terrarium is housed in a ‘Wardian” case, named for the 19th century amateur biologist Dr. Nathaniel Ward. Out on a woodland walk one day in 1830, he gathered a moth pupa and slipped it into a bottle he happened to be carrying. Once home, he forgot about it, only to come upon it months later. He found no butterfly, but instead, a seedling fern had sprouted. And thus began a Victorian “fad” that has survived over decades.
