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A sealed glass case for transporting plants reshaped more than just botany
- Kaibeezy 7y agoThe “Wardian case”, basically a terrarium, that first allowed live plants to survive long sea voyages.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago50 Things That Made The Modern Economy .. Tim Harford's series where this comes from, is fantastic radio IMO (I'm a big "More Or Less" fan too, his statistics programme ). It's available as podcasts of about 10mins length.
- xref 7y ago> It was Wardian cases, for example, that spread the Cavendish banana around the world. That's the variety you see in shops today. William Cavendish was the president of the Horticultural Society. I was under the impression the Cavendish was an obscure cultivar until the 1950s when Panama Disease wiped out the then-standard Gros Michel variety. I suppose that doesn’t preclude the cavendish being moved about in these boxes