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Hear Garden hero on the radio
Usk-born naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace - who has a Garden named in his honour here at the National Botanic Garden of Wales - is the subject of the BBC Radio 4 programme Great Lives.
Click here to listen to this programme
The Wallace Garden is dedicated to the history of plant breeding and genetics, and aims to raise understanding and interest in this rapidly developing field. The curving pathways in the Wallace Garden reflects the shape of the DNA double helix, and breaks the oval enclosure into a series of attractive themed beds. Planting blends the curious, the ornamental and the 
instructive. Here you'll find examples of natural plant mutations, and every year there are fresh displays of food crops and garden plants that have been selectively bred by humans, like sweet peas and dahlias.
The aim is to use this garden to get visitors to talk and think about future plant developments, especially the moral and ethical issues surrounding genetic modification.
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), whose own work on the theory of evolution by means of natural selection prompted Charles Darwin to publish his 'On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection'.
