The Garden of Eden

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A trip to the National Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya was held after morning lecture. We were guided by Dr. Siril Wijesundera. Now, I know that most of you have noticed that I am not very much of a nature person, so walking around a "park" wasn't really my idea of a good time spent. Boy was I wrong! What a beautiful place. If I could have known what the Garden of Eden was like, I would have described the Botanic Gardens as that. The garden has several goals in mind: to carryout activities related to authentication, ethnobotany and ex-situ conservation of plants, to develop technologies related to exploitation of lesser known plants, and to provide educational opportunities on plants to public school children and others. The garden was divided into 11 different areas, it was really hard to say which area was my favorite, each area was more beautiful than the last. The orchid house displayed exotic blooms, while the spice garden had a representative selection of cinnamon, pepper, cardamom, and nutmeg. Young couples hand in hand could be seen walking down the flower garden which displayed a border of flowers down its path which lead into an octagonal conservatory. (How romantic!) What surprised me the most was seeing the cacti. For being such a rainy place, I could not believe that a collection of cacti grew there. I've learned that over 1.2 million people visit the garden each year. It certainly is not a place to be missed while in Sri Lanka.

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