英國學生科學讀本 Lesson 56 黃色的報春花(2)

One kind has in its eye a little green knob just like the head of a pin; these are called pin-eyed. The other kind has a fringe of little yellow dust-spikes instead; such flowers are called thrum-eyed.

其中一種的“眼”中，有一個小小的綠球，像大頭針的頭一樣，英語是pin–eyed，直譯是“大頭針花心”，漢語叫“長花柱花”。另一種花心，邊上有一圈小小的黃色花藥，這種花英語叫做thrum-eyed，直譯是“線頭花心”，漢語叫“短花柱花”。

Let us split open the tube of one of each kind. Both have the broad green seed-vessel down at the bottom of the tube, and from it there rises a slender green thread with a round sticky knob at the top. This thread is called the style. Now you see that in one of the flowers the style rises to the top of the tube, and in the other it rises only half-way.

咱們把兩種花心的“花冠筒”各掰開一條。兩種花冠筒底部，都有寬寬的綠色“子房”，從它里面長出一根細絲，頂端有一個帶著粘性的小圓球。這細絲叫做“花柱”，現(xiàn)在你看到了，在一朵花當中，花柱會長到花冠筒頂端，在其他花當中，卻只長到花冠筒的一半高。

Do you see any other difference between the two flowers? Yes; in the pin-eyed flower the dust-spikes are placed half-way down the tube, but in the other they are right at the top, and form its "thrum" eye.

你還看見這兩種花有什么不同了嗎?有的：長花柱花中，花藥的位置，在花冠筒的下半邊;而在別的花中，花藥在最頂端，形成了花的線頭形狀的花心。

You know that every flower needs pollen from some other flower to help to make its seeds, and that bees and other insects carry this pollen about when they are gathering honey. Let us see how the two kinds of primrose flowers help each other to make seeds.

小朋友知道，每朵花都需要從別的花那兒拿到花粉，才能制造出自己的種子，蜜蜂和其他昆蟲，在采蜜的時候，就能把花粉帶來帶去。咱們再看看，這兩種報春花是怎么互相幫助，制造種子的。

When a bee pushes its trunk down into a thrum-eyed primrose, it gets part of its head covered with pollen. When it goes to a pin-eyed flower, that part of its head rubs against the top of the style and supplies it with pollen.

蜜蜂把喙探進“短花柱花”的時候，頭上的一個地方會染上花粉。蜜蜂再落到“長花柱花”上，頭的這個地方就蹭到了柱頭，把花粉送給了它。

A pin-eyed flower will leave its pollen on a different part of the insect's head. But this is just the part that will rub against the style of a thrum-eyed flower. So you see that the two kinds of primrose flowers exchange pollen with each other by means of the bees, and so help each other to make good seeds.

“長花柱花”還會把花粉，留在昆蟲頭部的另一個地方，蜜蜂正好用這個地方，蹭到“短花柱花”花的柱頭。所以這兩種報春花，就是通過蜜蜂來傳遞花粉的，互相幫助，制造出優(yōu)良的種子。

英語美文