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First division in the polyp group, the class Spongiaria has been created by scientists precisely for this unusual exhibit whose usefulness is beyond dispute.
海綿綱是水熄類的第一綱，這一綱就是由這種非常有用處的新奇產物組成的。
The sponge is definitely not a plant, as some naturalists still believe, but an animal of the lowest order, a polypary inferior even to coral.
海綿并不是植物，像現在還有些…生物學家承認的那樣。它是動物，不過是最低一目的動物，是比珊瑚更低的水熄叢。
Its animal nature isn't in doubt, and we can't accept even the views of the ancients, who regarded it as halfway between plant and animal.
它的動物性是無可懷疑的，我們不能接受古代人的意見，認為它是動植物間的中介物。
But I must say that naturalists are not in agreement on the structural mode of sponges.
不過我要說，關于海綿的機體組織，生物學家還沒有共同一致的意見。
For some it's a polypary, and for others, such as Professor Milne-Edwards, it's a single, solitary individual.
有些生物學家說海綿是水熄叢：另外一些，像愛德華先生，卻認為它是獨立的、單一的個體。
The class Spongiaria contains about 300 species that are encountered in a large number of seas and even in certain streams, where they've been given the name freshwater sponges.
海綿綱大約共有三百種，大多數的海中都有，并且也生在某部分淡水流里面，被稱為“河水海綿”。
But their waters of choice are the Red Sea and the Mediterranean near the Greek Islands or the coast of Syria.
不過海綿特別“繁殖的地方是地中海、希臘半島、敘利亞海岸和紅海一帶。
These waters witness the reproduction and growth of soft, delicate bath sponges whose prices run as high as 150 francs apiece:
在這一帶海中，那些柔軟細嫩的海綿繁殖得很快，每塊價值達一百五十法郎，
the yellow sponge from Syria, the horn sponge from Barbary, etc.
比如敘利亞的金色海綿，巴巴利亞的堅韌海綿等。
But since I had no hope of studying these zoophytes in the seaports of the Levant, from which we were separated by the insuperable Isthmus of Suez, I had to be content with observing them in the waters of the Red Sea.
既然我們被蘇伊土地峽分開，走不過去，我不可能·在近東各港灣里來研究這些植蟲動物，我只得在紅海中來觀察它們了。
So I called Conseil to my side, while at an average depth of eight to nine meters, the Nautilus slowly skimmed every beautiful rock on the easterly coast.
所以，當諾第留斯號在平均八至九米的水層，慢慢溜過這些東部海岸的美麗巖石的時候，我叫康塞爾到我身邊來。
