Published in Britain as The Remarkable Case of Dr Ward & Other Amazing Gardening Innovations, this entertaining miscellany begins with that same Nathaniel Bagshaw Ward, whose sealed glass case—the terrarium—enabled plants from all over the world to travel safely back to England in the 1830s. Meanwhile, Edwin Beard Budding's lawnmower replaced grazing livestock as the preferred way to keep lawns velvety smooth. Abigail Willis celebrates 50 such great ideas—a potted history, as it were, of the watersheds we take for granted in our gardening lives, charmingly illustrated with drawings that resemble vintage engravings.