Who gave it its wisdom?—to parody7 Mr. Swinburne. How did it come so well to time itself as the earliest among our conspicuous8 spring flowers? Well, coltsfoot is a composite, belonging to the same minor9 group as the common ragworts—its very leaf, indeed, being a good deal like some of the larger ragworts in type, especially those handsome exotics of the race, so much cultivated in greenhouses under the name of cinerarias. But living in cold northern climates, on the banks of streams, in deep clay soil, where it spreads most vigorously, it has learned by experience to accommodate itself to its environment. It did so, in fact, many thousand years before Mr. Herbert Spencer taught poor recent humanity that latter-day catchword. Growing in thickset places, by running water, where its own large leaves and those of its neighbours would overshadow and hide its dainty blossoms in the height of summer, it has acquired the odd trick of sending them up naked, on the naked clay, in very early spring, when they court and easily attract the attention of the first spring insects to visit and fertilize10 them. In order to do this it must lay by material the summer before, and that material the prudent plants bury deep out of harm’s way, in their creeping underground rootstock. Owing to the dampness and chilliness11 of the clay, which suits its constitution best, coltsfoot hides its rootstock exceptionally deep in the earth, and this precaution affords it, on the whole, a safe protection alike against cold and against burrowing12 enemies. As long as the frozen earth remains13 chilly14 underneath15, the buds make no stir; but as soon as the subsoil begins to rise in temperature to a very modest point the flower-heads grow apace from the buried material, exactly as hyacinths do from a bulb when placed in water in a slightly warm atmosphere. And such a raising of temperature in the subsoil is one of the surest signs that winter has spent itself.
The flower-stem of coltsfoot rises bare and leafless, save for a few small scales, such as one sees on asparagus; but it is thickly covered with a warm cottony wool, to keep out winter, and the buds are bent down so as to protect them at once from chill and from injury. Each stem terminates in a single pretty fluffy16 yellow flower-head, composed of innumerable golden florets of two kinds—those of the ray very narrow and ragged17, giving the entire head its characteristic tasselled appearance; while those of the central disk are much larger, and bell-shaped. The entire blossom looks like a dandelion at first sight to a careless observer; but when you come to examine it closely, it is a far more dignified18 and beautiful flower. The tone of its yellow is richer, yet mellower19, and its fluffy little ray-florets have a Japanesque charm in their flowing looseness.
So long as the flowers continue to bloom, you see no leaves; whence it comes about that many people know well the blossoms of coltsfoot in spring, and the foliage20 in summer, without having the faintest idea that they belong to one another. But if you keep your eye on the place where the yellow stars arose, after the flowers have withered21 and the white heads have blown away in copious22 flights, their wee feathery fruitlets, you will see by-and-by some big broad angular leaves, very thick and noticeable, rising high into the air from the same buried rootstock in the self-same position. Few leaves are more remarkable23, with their heart-shaped bases and their obtrusive24 angles; while the under side is thickly covered throughout with a cottony wool, loose, white, and abundant. They are big, because they overtop the other leaves about, and so gain free access to the air and sunshine. They have elbow-room to spread in. Their business (like that of all leaves) is to catch and eat carbonic acid, which the sunlight assimilates for them. For this reason they are green above, with a transparent25 skin, which skin forms a water-layer for absorbing the gas and conducting it to the living green tissue beneath, where it is duly digested and assimilated. But why the cotton below? Well, the upper and under surfaces of leaves perform in nature quite different functions. The upper side, which is thick and firm, eats carbonic acid and receives the incident sunlight to digest it; but the under side, which is looser and spongier, gives off vapour of water—transpires, as we say—by innumerable little mouths, which are its outward breathing-pores. Now, these pores must not be allowed to get clogged26 with dew; so in wet meadows and by river-banks, where everything reeks27 with dew from sunset till late in the succeeding morning, almost all the plants protect the breathing-pores on their under side by such an unwettable felt of thickly matted cotton. Meadow-sweet is a familiar English example, and so is a close relation of our coltsfoot, the butterbur.
点击收听单词发音
1 bent | |
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的 | |
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2 lore | |
n.传说;学问,经验,知识 | |
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3 prudent | |
adj.谨慎的,有远见的,精打细算的 | |
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4 wary | |
adj.谨慎的,机警的,小心的 | |
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5 recur | |
vi.复发,重现,再发生 | |
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6 treacherous | |
adj.不可靠的,有暗藏的危险的;adj.背叛的,背信弃义的 | |
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7 parody | |
n.打油诗文,诙谐的改编诗文,拙劣的模仿;v.拙劣模仿,作模仿诗文 | |
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8 conspicuous | |
adj.明眼的,惹人注目的;炫耀的,摆阔气的 | |
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9 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
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10 fertilize | |
v.使受精,施肥于,使肥沃 | |
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11 chilliness | |
n.寒冷,寒意,严寒 | |
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12 burrowing | |
v.挖掘(洞穴),挖洞( burrow的现在分词 );翻寻 | |
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13 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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14 chilly | |
adj.凉快的,寒冷的 | |
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15 underneath | |
adj.在...下面,在...底下;adv.在下面 | |
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16 fluffy | |
adj.有绒毛的,空洞的 | |
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17 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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18 dignified | |
a.可敬的,高贵的 | |
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19 mellower | |
成熟的( mellow的比较级 ); (水果)熟透的; (颜色或声音)柔和的; 高兴的 | |
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20 foliage | |
n.叶子,树叶,簇叶 | |
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21 withered | |
adj. 枯萎的,干瘪的,(人身体的部分器官)因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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22 copious | |
adj.丰富的,大量的 | |
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23 remarkable | |
adj.显著的,异常的,非凡的,值得注意的 | |
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24 obtrusive | |
adj.显眼的;冒失的 | |
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25 transparent | |
adj.明显的,无疑的;透明的 | |
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26 clogged | |
(使)阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 ); 淤滞 | |
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27 reeks | |
n.恶臭( reek的名词复数 )v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的第三人称单数 );散发臭气;发出难闻的气味 (of sth);明显带有(令人不快或生疑的跡象) | |
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