Images Dated 2005

Cinchona bark specimens

Cinchona bark specimens from the Economic Botany Collection, RBG Kew. Cinchona bark and its derived quinine alkaloids were the most effective treatment for malaria from the 17th century to the 1940s. As a medicinal herb, cinchona bark is also known as Jesuit's bark or Peruvian bark

© RBG Kew

Alkaloids, Bark, Cinchona, Economic Botany, Jesuits Bark, Medicinal, Medicine, Peruvian Bark, Quinine, Rbg Kew, Rubiaceae, Specimen

The Wardian case, ca 1940 - 1950

Image of a horticulturalist packing plants into a Wardian Case ready for transportation. The Wardian case was a portable airtight greenhouse developed by Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward to protect live plant material during transportation. The Wardian case was a portable airtight greenhouse developed by Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward (1791-1868). As he lived in the docklands area of London, Ward's interest in amateur botany was thwarted by the polluted, sooty air that killed everything he tried to grow. After noticing that seedlings flourished in a glass jar and were protected from London's smoky environment, Ward created the Wardian Case; it revolutionised botany in the 19th century, allowing live plants to be transported across the globe

© The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew