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Just saying the word “rose” conjures¹ up images of romance, secret admirers, Valentines gifts, and bridal bouquets³. Romantics imagine soft, red petals⁴ and long, graceful⁵ stems, but practical gardeners know all about painful, pointy thorns. As the saying goes, every rose has its thorn. But, what we call thorns are actually not thorns at all.
“玫瑰”很容易让人联想到浪漫的场景，神秘的爱慕者，情人节的礼物和结婚的花束。浪漫的人会想象出柔软的、红色的花瓣和修长的，优雅的花茎，但是实际上园丁们才知道那些尖锐的刺带来的痛楚。常言道，每朵玫瑰都有刺。但是，我们所说的这种刺其实根本就不是刺。

Thorns
刺

Thorns, like those found on the Hawthorn⁶ tree, are modified branches that project from the stem and branches of a woody plant.
刺，例如山楂树上的刺，实际上是一种改良的分枝，它会从木本植物的茎和分枝中生长出来。

They are very sharp and quite strong because they are made of the same stuff as the stem of the tree or bush. Thorns are deeply embedded⁷ in the woody structure of the plant and can’t be broken off easily. Those nasty points on the stem of the rose are not true thorns: they are what scientists call “prickles.”
它们非常锋利并且相当坚硬，因为它们的质地与灌木或树的茎是一样的。这些刺都深深地嵌在植物的木纹状组织结构内，不会被轻易破坏。这些令人讨厌的长在玫瑰茎上的刺其实并不是真正的刺，科学家们称它们为“皮刺”。

Prickles
皮刺

Prickles are smaller than thorns: they are sharp outgrowths of the plant’s outer layers, the skin-like epidermis⁸, and the sub-epidermal layer just beneath it. Unlike a thorn, a prickle can be easily broken off the plant because it is really a feature of the outer layers rather than part of the wood, like a thorn.
皮刺比刺要小了许多：它们是这些植物外层的附属物，看上去像皮肤的表皮，其下还有亚表皮层。不像刺，皮刺能够被轻易地从植物茎上剥落，因为它仅仅是植物外层的一种特征，而不像刺那样是茎的一部分。

Both prickles and thorns protect the plant from predators⁹, and, maybe, from lovers looking for a free bouquet². But perhaps we call the rose prickles “thorns” because saying “every rose has its prickle” doesn’t seem to do justice to the pain of unrequited love.
不管是刺抑或荆棘，都可以保护这些植物不被捕食者所猎食，同样，或许也能免于被那些寻找免费花束的情人所折断。但是或许，我们应该叫这些皮刺为“刺”，因为“每一朵玫瑰都有它的刺”的说法似乎对那些暗恋者所感受的痛苦来说不太公平。