(单词翻译:单击)
The Exotic Plants from China
从中国来的外来植物
When getting rid of the rotten weeds for the daisy in your courtyard or on your balcony with a spade, do you know it is an exotic plant?
当你用铲子给你院子里或阳台上的雏菊除去腐烂的杂草时，你知道它是外来植物吗？
As a monument near a pyramid in Egypt shows, collecting exotic plants dates back to around 1,500BC.
正如一座埃及金字塔旁的纪念碑所记载，收集外来植物可追溯到公元前1500年。
In the 18th century, European missionaries and botanists anchored in the Yellow Sea and did their endeavor to collect typical Chinese plants on a large scale, such as dove trees which appealed to them very much.
在18世纪，欧洲的植物学家在黄海抛锚停泊，努力大规模收集典型的中国植物，例如鸽子树，就非常吸引他们。
The difficulties they met included thunderstorms, restrictions on their movement and conflicts with pirates, who carried spears and never shaved their beards.
他们遇见的困难包括雷暴天气，行动的限制，还有与拿长矛、留胡子的海盗发生的冲突。
Their fluency in Chinese helped them a lot.
好在流利的中文给了他们很大的帮助。
To lower the death rate of the plants, they used strings to fix plants in tightly sealed containers, which were attached to other goods and shipped back to distant Europe.
为了降低植物的死亡率，他们用细绳把植物固定在紧紧密封的容器里，然后附加在别的货物上运回遥远的欧洲。
However, a problem appeared. Among these plants, some gave out a delicate or fragrant odour to attract particular beetles or wasps.
然而，有个问题出现了。在这些植物中，有些散发出微妙的或芬芳的气味吸引特定的甲是或黄蜂。
Some gave out a fruity or musty smell to attract certain bats and moths,
有些释放出果味或霉味吸引某种蝙蝠或蛾，
while other odourless plants with dull petals used the nectar inside their tubes to attract humming-birds.
而另一些无味、花瓣颜色也不鲜明的动植物则用他们花管中的花蜜引来蜂鸟。
Without these pollinators which evolved together with the plants to pollinate for them, most plants postponed to get ripe despite enough irrigation.
没有这些与植物共同进化的虫媒来给它们授粉，即使给予充分的灌溉，这些植物还是大部分都延迟成熟了。
