Giardino Alpino Paradisia
Overview
 
The Giardino Alpino Paradisia or Jardin alpin Paradisia (French), is an alpine nature preserve and botanical garden
Botanical garden
A botanical garden The terms botanic and botanical, and garden or gardens are used more-or-less interchangeably, although the word botanic is generally reserved for the earlier, more traditional gardens. is a well-tended area displaying a wide range of plants labelled with their botanical names...

 located at 1700 meters altitude in the Gran Paradiso National Park
Gran Paradiso National Park
Gran Paradiso National Park is an Italian national park in the Graian Alps, between the Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions. The park is named after Gran Paradiso mountain, which is located in the park...

 at Valnontey, Cogne
Cogne
Cogne is a town and comune in Aosta Valley, northern Italy with 1469 inhabitants, as of 2005.Cogne is located in the valley with the same name, leading to the Gran Paradiso massif Ibex, wild goat, marmots, royal eagles are easy to see...

, Aosta Valley, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

. It is open daily in the warmer months.

The garden was founded in 1955, and named for Paradisea liliastrum (St. Bruno's Lily). It is primarily a nature preserve but also contains man-made reconstructions of nearby mountain environments, including wetland
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

s, moraine
Moraine
A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...

s, and limestone
Limestone
Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate . Many limestones are composed from skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral or foraminifera....

 debris.

The garden currently contains about 1,000 species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 of plants native to the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....

 and Apennines, as well as specimens from other mountains in Europe, Asia, and America.
Quotations

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, in "Friendship" in Essays, First series (1841)

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy.

The Bible, Proverbs 27:6 (NASB)

A friendship that can be ended didn't ever start.

Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Oeuvres poétiques

A friend in need is a friend indeed.

Scots proverb, as published in Beauties of Allan Ramsay: Being a Selection of the Most Admired Pieces of that Celebrated Author, viz. The Gentle Shepherd; Christ's Kirk on the Green; The Monk, and the Miller's Wife; with his valuable collection of Scots Proverbs (1815), "Scots Proverbs" Ch. 1; also quoted in Pure Morning|Pure Morning, a song by Placebo|Placebo.

A friend loves at all times, and kinsfolk are born to share adversity.

The Bible, Proverbs 17:17 (NRSV)

A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Proverbs 18:24, The Bible (New International Version)

It is amazing how you can surround yourself with so many people you can call friends, and yet actually only have one or two real ones.

Jerry Grant Blakeney

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

Anaïs Nin, Diary entry, March 1937

A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter;he who finds one finds a treasure.A faithful friend is beyond price,no sum can balance his worth.

Sirach 6:14-15 (The New American Bible)

Friendship is not for merriment but for stern reproach when friends go astray.

Tiruvalluvar, Tirukkural: 784

 
x
OK