14] 
OSTREA puichra. 
TAB. CCLXXIX. 
Spec. Cuar. Orbicular, depressed; one valve 
nearly flat, with a short incurved beak ; the 
other valve convex, with numerous radiating 
undulations ; beak short; hinge line straight ; 
lamine thin, close pressed. 
I 
For an Oyster this is a very regular shell: it nearly 
resembles that variety of O. edulis, commonly known 
by the epithet Native, but it wants the ears so often 
observable in it, and which give it a square form. In 
general the pulchra is a deeper shell. Ostrea edulina 
of De Lamarck (Animaux sans Vertebres VI. 218.) ap- 
pears to have more elongated beaks, but I have not 
seen specimens. 
A great abundance of this species of Oyster is depo- 
sited in some of the gravelly strata above the Chalk 
near Bromley in Kent. I consider it to be distinct from 
the one somewhat similar, but less regular, so plentiful 
near the Church at Charlton, which I shall take some 
future opportunity of figuring, when I can compare it 
with some others. The acknowledged difficulty of 
distinguishing the species of this genius cannot be 
hastily surmounted. The smaller figure is selected 
from many individuals found at Plaistow, and presented 
to me by the son of Sir John Lubbock; the other was 
given me by Dr. Menish, it is from the top of the hill in 
the pleasure grounds of Claud Scott, Esq. at Bromley. 
