Six K.M west of Kandy in The Royal Botanic Garden of Peradeniya lies by the river Mahaweili. It is spread over 147 acres or nearly 6 square kilometers. More than 4,000 species of plants, spices, palm trees and medicinal plants can be found.

The origins of the Gardens date to 1371 and they were declared a Royal Garden during the reign of King Kirti Sri Rajasinghe between 1747 - 1780 in Kandyan Kingdom. The Gardens on their present site were established in 1821 by British Government.

During the Second World War, the Botanical Garden and the bunglaw near Mahaweli River was used by Lord Louis Mountbatten, The Last Viseroy of India and the supreme commander of the allied forces in the South Asia, as the headquarters of the South East Asia Command.

A collection of spices can be seen in the spice garden located on the right side of the entrance. Several popular spices such as Cardamom, cinnamon, Pepper, and nutmeg with many other various spices can be seen here. The all spice tree will be worth to see.

One of the tree with a significant history is the Cannonball Tree planted by King George V of the United Kingdom and Queen Mary in 1901. The tree is bent with its fruits, which look like cannonballs.

The classical Avenue of Palms is located in this Garden. One avenue is flanked with Cabbage Palms (Roystonia oleracea), and the second avenue flanked with Palmyrah Palms (Borassus flabellifer) and the third avenue is flanked with Royal Palm (Roystonia regia)

Fernery of the garden occupies next to the flower garden is a well maintained with landscaped place with paved paths. A large number of lofty trees draped with rising vines and creepers creates the environment as seen in a rainforest. There are about 100 species of ferns could be seen here.

The Orchid house showcases a fine collection of orchid species and some of them are very rare such as bloom of Cattleya, Dendrobium, Arachnis, Oncidium, Phalaenopsis, Vanda and their hybrids are well worthy of having look. The largest orchid of the world known as Grammatophyllum speciosum as well as many other hardy tropical orchid species can be seen here.

A large collection of Bamboo trees are planted along the Mahaweli river bank with the giant bamboo (Dendrocalamus giganteus), yellow building bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris), the feather left bamboo (Dendrocalamusmembranaceus), the prickly bamboo (Bambusa spinosa) and the Dwarf Chinese bamboo and many other species