VARIETIES OF OYSTERS. 153 



Kent, in a semi-cultivated state, and well known in this 

 country as "natives." Var. 5. West of Scotland and 

 Burra Isles, Shetland. Mr. Grainger has noticed this 

 ubiquitous species as " imbedded in considerable myriads" 

 in a raised pliocene deposit at Belfast ; and, according to 

 Mr. James Smith and Mr. Geikie, it occurs in the Clyde 

 beds and other glacial deposits in Scotland. Red and 

 Coralline Crag (S. Wood). 



The shells may also be seen mixed with those of 

 peculiarly arctic species in the raised sea-beds near Udde- 

 valla. It is very difficult to ascertain its foreign distribu- 

 tion, with any tolerable degree of correctness, in conse- 

 quence of its specific identity being enveloped in such a 

 cloud of different names. Depending, however, on those 

 authorities which appear to be most accurate, I consider 

 that its range extends from Iceland (Mohr) to Naples 

 (Scacchi) and the Adriatic (Chierighini). I can ans\ver for 

 the common form, as well as the variety parasitica, being 

 found at Cannes. Miiller, Loven, Lilljeborg, Asbjornsen, 

 and Malm, have recorded it as inhabiting different parts of 

 the Scandinavian sea, from Christiansund southwards ; and 

 Mr. McAndre\v has found it in Vigo Bay and off Gibraltar. 

 Philippi says that in Sicily it occurs in a fossil state only. 

 According to Gould, it is indistinguishable from the oyster 

 of New York. It has not been observed by Dr. Otto 

 Torell, or any arctic explorer, on the coasts of Greenland , 

 but it is common in some of the postglacial beds near 

 Uddevalla, and in the diocese of Christiania, associated 

 with high-northern shells. 



Although we are now favoured with only one species 

 of what Gmelin termed the " vermis sapidissimus," and the 

 supply is never equal to the demand, the case was very 



