英國學生科學讀本 Lesson 30 馬鈴薯(2)

Below the ground the stem is swelling out into little beads that will grow into new potatoes for us. The earthmust be piled up round the stems, so as to cover the potatoes and keep them from the light.

地下的莖會長出小珠子一樣的東西, 小珠子又會長成新的馬鈴薯給我們吃。地下莖周圍一定要堆上土, 蓋住馬鈴薯, 不讓它們見光。

In August the stem and the leaves wither. After that we can dig up the potatoes, and we shall find that each set has given us perhaps eight or ten

八月, 馬鈴薯的莖和葉子就會枯萎, 之后我們就可以把馬鈴薯挖出來了, 每一個種下的馬鈴薯塊大概會長出8–10個馬鈴薯。

But does the potato plant bear no fruit? Yes; when the flowers drop off, we see little green balls, which we call "potato apples. " These "potato apples" are real fruits, with seeds inside them.

但是馬鈴薯不長果實嗎? 長?；淞艘院? 我們會看見很小的綠球, 這些綠球叫“馬鈴薯果”。這些馬鈴薯果是真正的果實, 里面含有種子。

But if we sow these seeds, we shall only get small plants. The potatoes grown from these seeds will be no larger than marbles.

但是如果種下這些種子, 只能得到很小的馬鈴薯。種子長出來的馬鈴薯, 頂多也只有玻璃球那么大。

What is the potato made of? There is a great deal of water in it, and the solid part is nearly all starch. You can easily make potato starch by grating down a potato in a basin of water. Strain the white water through some muslin, and let it stand till all the tiny white grains of starch sink to the bottom. Then pour away the water, and dry the starch in a saucer.

馬鈴薯的成分是什么呢? 里面有很多水分, 固體的部分幾乎全是淀粉。要得到馬鈴薯淀粉很容易：把一個馬鈴薯在一盆水里磨碎, 把白色的水用細棉布過濾一遍, 放置一段時間, 直到細小的淀粉碎屑都沉到底下。把水倒掉, 再將淀粉在碟子里晾干就行了。

英語美文