为纪念达尔文这位影响世界的科学家诞辰200周年，英国政府在一月底提名将达尔文故居写入世界自然遗产，如果被批准，达尔文故居和故居附近的森林、田野和池塘将和金字塔和巨石阵一起，成为世界自然遗产并可以得到妥善的保护。

达尔文故居（简称为Down House）位于肯特郡，在这里达尔文写出了享誊世界的《物种起源》一书，达尔文经常在故居附近的河岸采集野生兰花并拿进温室完成培养，他还经常在河边的泥地附近素描昆虫食用的植物图样，而肯特的池塘边也留下了他观察种子发芽成长的身影。

达尔文的重重孙表示，将故居列入世界自然遗产将有助于保护故居不被英国日益加速的城市化影响。虽然当年达尔文选择这里时，这里人迹罕至，但今天，这里已经是喧闹的小城市了。如果可以被选为自然遗产，这里将可以得到更好地保护。

DARWIN'S HOME NOMINATED AS WORLD HERITAGE SITE

To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the scientist who changed the world, the government will today nominate Charles Darwin's home in Kent, and the nearby woodlands, fields and ponds that have been called his landscape laboratory, as a world heritage site.

The designation, if accepted, will place Down House, the home where Darwin wrote On The Origin Of Species - in his study with an angled mirror to check for unwelcome visitors at the front door - beside the Pyramids and Stonehenge in the world's treasury of monuments to human genius.

The heritage site, near the village of Downe, would encompass the banks where Darwin gathered wild orchids to propagate and study in his glasshouses, the bog where he drew tiny insect-eating plants, and the pond where he collected mud to see what seeds would sprout.

（Source: Guardian News，英国使馆文化教育处提供）