海底兩萬里 第307期 第23章 珊瑚王國(6)

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In the zoophyte branch, class Alcyonaria, one finds the order Gorgonaria, which contains three groups: sea fans, isidian polyps, and coral polyps. It's in this last that precious coral belongs, an unusual substance that, at different times, has been classified in the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Medicine to the ancients, jewelry to the moderns, it wasn't decisively placed in the animal kingdom until 1694, by Peysonnel of Marseilles.

在植蟲動物門、翡翠綱中，有礬花這一目，這一目包含礬花、木賊和珊瑚三科。珊瑚屬于珊瑚科，是一種奇怪的東西，曾經(jīng)先后被分人礦物、植物和動物類。在古代它是治病的藥方，在近代是裝飾的珍寶，一直封1694年：，馬賽人皮桑尼爾才明確地把它們作為動物分類。

A coral is a unit of tiny animals assembled over a polypary that's brittle and stony in nature. These polyps have a unique generating mechanism that reproduces them via the budding process, and they have an inpidual existence while also participating in a communal life. Hence they embody a sort of natural socialism. I was familiar with the latest research on this bizarre zoophyte-which turns to stone while taking on a tree form, as some naturalists have very aptly observed--and nothing could have been more fascinating to me than to visit one of these petrified forests that nature has planted on the bottom of the sea.

珊瑚是一群聚集在易碎的和石質(zhì)偽珊瑚樹上的微生物的總體. 這些珊瑚蟲有一種獨(dú)特的繁殖力，像枝芽滋生一樣，它們有自己本身的生命，同時又有共同的生命，所以這種情形好像是一種自然的社會主義；我知道最近關(guān)于這種奇怪的植蟲動物的研究結(jié)果，照生物學(xué)家的很正確的觀察，珊瑚蟲在分支繁殖中就起礦化作用，對我來說，去參觀大自然種植在海底下的一處石質(zhì)森林，實(shí)在是最有興趣不過的了。

We turned on our Ruhmkorff devices and went along a coral shoal in the process of forming, which, given time, will someday close off this whole part of the Indian Ocean. Our path was bordered by hopelessly tangled bushes, formed from snarls of shrubs all covered with little star-shaped, white-streaked flowers. Only, contrary to plants on shore, these tree forms become attached to rocks on the seafloor by heading from top to bottom.

蘭可夫探照器使用起來，我們沿著正在形戌的珊瑚層走去，這些珊瑚脈經(jīng)過相當(dāng)?shù)臅r間，有一夭將要把印度洋的這一部分海面封閉起來。路旁盡是錯雜的小珊瑚樹所形成的混亂的珊瑚樹叢，枝權(quán)上遮滿白光閃閃的星狀小花。不過，跟陸地上的植物正相反，固定在海底巖石上的珊瑚樹的枝權(quán)，全是從上到下發(fā)展的。

Our lights produced a thousand delightful effects while playing over these brightly colored boughs.

燈光在色彩很鮮艷的枝葉中間照來照去，發(fā)生無窮的美麗迷人的景象。