J 02 Objt:rvaho7is rcfpcBlng Ojjlers, 



nion of Bradley *, who calls the plant a fort of Cow's millc ; 

 a name which, according to Iludfoii's Flora Avgl'ica, is a 

 Cofiferva r'wuhiris, I nmft here remark alio, that the Ulva 

 iali/Jlma oi hmnxus, which by Gmelin in his Hljhria fu- 

 corum is called Fucus tremclla laduca, is by the Englifli 

 called the oyfter-green. The objeftions which feme Englifli 

 writers have made to this opinion fecm to me to be of little 

 weight. They afl'ert, that when, in the neighbourhood of a 

 greening-pit, another is formed at the diftancc of about a foot, 

 the water never becomes green in the latter ; and tliat pits 

 which have been a certain time green, and have communi- 

 cated that colour to oyfters, fometimes lofe their colour. But 

 all this, even if true, might, on more accurate obfervation, 

 be explained from the vegetation of thefe plants. 



In Europe the Englifli oyfters are accounted the beft ; and 

 thefe, as the French believe, have been produced from oyf- 

 ters formerly flflied up in Concalle Bay, near St. Malo, and 

 tranfplanicd to the Englifli coaft : but of this aflertion we 

 have no prooff. Thofe, however, are mod: efteemed which 

 are found on the coaft of ElTcx : from that coaft the brood is 

 tranfplantcd to the fca near Colcheftcr, where the Coin, 

 which flows through the city, forms a great many arms and 

 fmall creeks exceedingly proper for breeding them. A great 

 many of thefe oyfter-pits are found at the village of Row 

 Hedge, in the parifli of Eaft Doniland ; and the fale of oyf- 

 ters forms a confiderable branch of trade to the whole neigh- 

 bourhood!. After the month of May, however, no feed 

 inuft be taken from the banks, becaufe it is known, from 

 experience, that in that cafe mufclcs and cockles would breed 

 there and deftroy the oyfters. People who infringe on this 

 regulation are feverely puniflied by the Admiralty Court, 

 which has all the oyfter banks under its infpe^^lion. All thefe 

 ovfters are in high requeft, under the name of Colchcfter oyf- 

 ters. The beft come from Purfleetj they are exceedingly 



♦ A rhilofnphiral Account of the Works of Nature, London 1739, 

 Svo. p. 72. 



f Lettres de I'Abbc Le Blanc far Ics Anglois et Ics Francois, Awjiird, 

 :747,iimo.V'jl. Iir.p. 2S1. 



t Mf>n\nt's Fliftory and Antiquities of ElTex, London 1763, fol. p. 1R6, 



plum Pi 



