OSTREADjE. — OYSTER. 69 



upper valve flat, or nearly so, with scales or laminae of a 

 yellowish-brown ; the lower valve convex, and foliaceous, 

 of a pale pinkish- white, with streaks of purplish-pink ; 

 transversely striated. Hinge toothless ; ligament inter- 

 nal, of an olivaceous-brown ; beaks small. The interior 

 of the shell white and polished ; sometimes the purplish- 

 pink colour of the margins showing through. 



The edible oyster of Great Britain is supposed to be 

 superior to those of other European countries, and to 

 attain to a greater degree of perfection on our coasts ; and 

 it was much valued by the Romans, who transplanted 

 numbers from our shores, and placed them in artificial 

 beds in the Lucrine Lake. Sergius Orata first invented 

 these oyster-beds, " not for the gratification of gluttony, 

 but of avarice, as he contrived to make a large income 

 by this exercise of his ingenuity/'* Apicius first dis- 

 covered the art of preserving oysters fresh for a consi- 

 derable time, and sent some from Italy to the Emperor 

 Trajan, while he was on an expedition against the Par- 

 thians, which were found on their arrival to be as good 

 as on the day they were gathered. f This mode may 

 possibly have been the same as that which is practised 

 in Italy at the present day, where, as Poli tells us, they 

 are carried from Tarentum to Naples in bags, tightly 

 packed with snow, which not only by its coolness pre- 

 serves them, but also by preventing them from opening 

 their bivalves, enables them to retain in the shells suffi- 

 cient moisture to preserve their lives for a long period. J 



There were other places from whence oysters were 

 procured, and Mucianus speaks with rapture of those 



* Pliny, Nat. Hist. vol. ii. bk. ix. chap. 79. 

 f Daniel's ' Rural Sports,' vol. iv. p. 194. 

 X Poli, ' Testacea utriusque Sicilise.' 



