Glass Gardens
A terrarium is a miniature glass-enclosed indoor garden that contains a collection of plants that belong to the same plant community and need the same amount of water and sunlight. If you wish to cultivate a terrarium, it is important to group the same plants that need the same conditions for them to grow well together inside a small container.
Within a terrarium’s space, biochemical reactions occur. These include photosynthesis and oxygen emission. A terrarium has its own ecosystem and can support other living beings like a small animal or two. In fact, a terrarium is considered as a plant hospital. Try placing an unhealthy plant inside a covered terrarium and see how well it recovers. This is because the covered glass container keeps the plants from drying out and protects them from sudden changes of temperature. Hence, terrarium can also make for an excellent way of transporting rare plants from faraway places.
Like a lot of other important scientific discoveries, the idea of the terrarium was the result of an accident. In 1829, Dr. Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791-1868), an English physician who had a passion for botany, put a chrysalis inside a glass jar with some moist earth to watch it develop into a butterfly. After a few days, he noticed that a fern began to grow in the moist air. Inspired by the discovery, he began to experiment extensively by cultivating many varieties of plants in glass containers. His glass gardens became popular and were known as the Wardian case, the precursor of the modern terrarium.
