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Botanical Gardens
Hakgala Botanical Garden
Where plants and trees from around the world seen at homeIt was the site initially for experiments
with cinchona whose bark yielded quinine, esteemed as a tonic and febrifuge.
Quinine at that time was widely used as a specific for malaria. This was
perhaps the reason for the popularity of and tonic in these parts - quinine
being the principle ingredient of tonic water.
The cool, equable climate of the hakgala area, whose mean temperature is
around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, encouraged the introduction of suitable
temperate zone plants, both ornamental and useful. These included conifers
and cedars from Australia, Bermuda and Japan, and cypresses from the
Himalayas, china and as far a field as Persia, Mexico and California. New
Caledonia gave Hakgala a special variety of pines and there are specimens of
this genus from the canary Island as well.
An English oak, introduced around 1890, commemorates the "hearts of
oak" of Britain's vaunted sea power, and there is a good-looking
specimen of the camphor tree, whose habitat is usually in regions above
12,000m.
If you have left your heart in an English garden, you will surely find it
again in Hakgala's Rose garden. where the sights and scents of these glorious
blooms can be experienced in their infinite variety. From there it is a quiet
stroll from the sublime to the exotic sophistication of the orchid House. A
special attraction here is the verity of montane orchids, many of them
endemic to Sri Lanka.
It would be in the worst possible taste to describe the Fernery as a
collection of "vascular cryptograms" But that is how the dictionary
describes the plant whose delicate fronds conjure up visions of misty
grottoes, lichen-covered stones and meandering streams. The Fernery at
Hakgala is a shady harbour of many quiet walks, in the shad of the Hakgala
Rock, shaped like the jawbone of an elephant, from which the place gets its
name. Sri Lanka's ferns are well represented here, as are those of Australia
and New Zealand.
Hakgala is a temperate hill-country garden where also the languid low-country
lotus and water lily floats in their serene loveliness. Pinks and blues
emerging from a flat- floating background of lush leaves, recall the calm of
yellow-robed monks, white-clad, devotees and flickering oil lamps.
In time, the highlands bracing breezes dispel the languor of lotus land and
even cause a shiver as a temperature lowers. The Hakgala Botanical Gardens is
one of the lovely contrasts of Sri Lanka, a home to plants and trees from
around the world, making them seem to be part of the scenic beauty.
How to get to Hakgala: The nearest railway station is at Nanu Oya, from where
there are buses or taxis on the Nuwara Eliya to Badulla road to Hakgala.
Part of the information is Courtesy of www.mysrilanka.com
WNSO Sri Lanka is part of Worldwide Nepalese Students' Organisation (WNSO)