As the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens celebrates its bicentenary this year, Dr. A.H. Magdon Jayasuriya looks at the role of the National Herbarium located within it

Aherbarium is where you will find a collection of preserved plant specimens for research on plant life and diversity. These dried specimens are mounted on durable stiff paper sheets, systematically filed and arranged in special cupboards similar to books in a library. Stored separately are tissue materials such as flowers, bulbils, underground parts, e.g., rhizomes, corms and tubers preserved in liquid and dried samples of wood and large fruits.

A herbarium is also accompanied by a library of books and periodicals on plant taxonomy, species diversity, maps, handdrawn illustrations and paintings, photographs and sometimes microfilms.

Located within the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya, the National Herbarium is housed in a building complex consisting of three 19th Century classical buildings and another later building forming a quadrangular complex equipped with facilities for researchers, students and other authorised visitors. The Herbarium has approximately 180,000 mounted specimens while the library contains about 4,000 books and periodicals, and some 5,000 botanical illustrations. The collection is currently being digitized and also printed in volumes and made available for purchasing.

Early history

The history of the National Herbarium is closely linked to the development of the Botanical Gardens. First established in 1810 at Slave Island, Colombo, under Sir Joseph Banks and named Kew, with William Kerr, a former Kew gardener as its Superintendent, it was moved to Kalutara in 1813 as the Colombo site lacked sufficient space. Here in an abandoned sugar plantation at Uggalboda, it was possible to cultivate economic plants on a larger scale. With the establishment of British rule in 1815, the Garden was moved to its final destination Peradeniya in 1821, under the supervision of Kerr’s successor, Alexander Moon, of similar training but better qualified.

Plant specimens collected and /or recorded by Moon, from Kalutara, Colombo, Kandy and Jaffna etc., became the nucleus of the Herbarium.

Moon’s great literary energy and unique dedication to science and education was evident from his monumental publication, ‘Catalogue of Ceylon Plants’ published in 1824 at the Wesleyan Missionary Press in Colombo. Mainly in Sinhala with