The Serra Grande (the Great Greenhouse) in the English Garden was built after the unification of Italy by Nicola Terracciano (1837-1921), professor of botany and geology with a degree in Natural Science at the Royal University of Naples and appointed Director of the Royal Garden at the English and Botanical Garden of Caserta - a role that he held until 1903. Terracciano wanted to create a greenhouse to be used for the recently discovered exotic plants and he is responsible for the acclimatization of the two specimens of Ceiba speciosa (old nomenclature Chorisia speciosa) - in the open ground and still visible today. To allow the adaptation of tropical species, the greenhouse was built with windows throughout and was equipped with a complex heating and humidification system: a wood-burning oven in the underground rooms allowed, through suitable pipes, to channel hot air to be sent into the " large glass structure above "; the heat expanded into the greenhouse through special openings placed in the pavement and shielded by perforated metal discs (partly preserved). A small fountain placed in the center of the large room made it possible to humidify and maintain the level of steam necessary for the exotic plants.