The Royal Botanical Gardens in Peradeniya
The Gardens date back to the Kandyan
kingdom, when they were used as royal pleasure grounds. However, it was
soon after the British seized the Kandyan Kingdom that they were
established in 1821; primarily to introduce coffee trees and various other tropical plants
of economic importance to the region. Even after it took on a more
botanical emphasis in the 1840s, the garden remained a center for
horticultural activities. Under the directorship of the botanist George
H.K. Thwaites, the garden played a pivotal role in establishing the
country’s flourishing tea industry in the late 1870s. Thwaites also
brought in and cultivated the Brazilian rubber tree, which became a crop
producer vital to Sri Lanka’s economy. The botanical collection has
developed into one of the finest in the region.
