CHAPTER VIII. 



VARIETIES OF OYSTERS. 



MARINE. 



CLASS CONCHIFERA. (CuviER.) 



ORDER LAMELLIBRANCHIATA. (DE BLAINVILLE.) 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS RELATIVE TO THE BRACHIOPODA AND 

 THE LAMELLIBRANCHIATA GENUS ANOMIA ANOMIA EPHIP- 

 PIUM ANOMIA PATELLIFORMIS OSTREID^E GENUS OSTREA 

 OSTREA EDULIS. 



" Oh ! what an endlesse worke have I in hand, 

 To count the sea's abundant progeny, 

 Whose fruitful seed farre passeth those in land, 

 And also those which wonne in the azure sky ; 

 And much more earth to tell the starres on hy, 

 Albe they endlesse seeme in estimation, 

 Than to recount the sea's posterity, 

 So fertile be the floods in generation, 

 So huge their numbers, and so numberlesse their nation." 



SPENSER. 



THERE are two classes of soft-bodied animals which 

 secrete a hard chalky substance in the form of two hollow- 



