51 



which make the species extremely difficult to recognize. If they cannot 

 " add colours to the chameleon/' they can, at least, " change shapes with 

 Proteus." They cluster one upon another, vary the development of the 

 shell according to the situation of their place of attachment, and when 

 affixed to sticks and stems, throw out shelly protuberances to cling by. 

 As if to compensate, however, for these deformities, there is a species dear 

 to Europeans, the only one inhabiting Britain, which has been cultivated 

 from the earliest dawn of epicureanism for its delicacy of taste, and it is 

 not improbable that some of the exotic species may be equally delicious.* 



Among the more constant specific forms of Ostrea may be mentioned 

 0. carinata and crista-galli, iu which the margins interlock in deep zigzag 

 undulations, and a Philippine species, regarded as the living representative 

 of Lamarck's fossil genus Gryphaa. In this the umbonal area of the 

 lower valve, which in most species more or less recedes by successive 

 layers of growth from the umbo of the upper valve, curves over, like an 

 inverted Eoman lamp. 



1. Adriatica, Lam. 



2. bicolor, Hartley. 



3. borealis, Lam. 



4. callochroa, Hauley. 



5. Chenmitzii, id. 



6. circumsuta, Gould. 



7. cochlear, Poll. 



8. Columbiensis, Hanley. 



9. conchaphila, Carp. 



Species. 



10. cornucopia?, Lam. 



11. crista-galli, Linn. 



12. cristata, Bom. 



13. cucullata, id. 



14. Cumingiana, Dunk. 



15. Cyrnusii, Payr. 



16. deformis, Lam. 



17. denticulata, Bom. 



18. discoidea, Gould. 



19. edulis, Linn. 



20. elliptica, Lam. 



21. excavata, Zid. 



22. frons, Linn. 



23. fucorum, Lam. 



24. gallina, id. 



25. gibbosa, id. 



26. glomerata, Gould. 



27. guineensis, Dunk. 



* " The Ostrea edulis may be said to have its capital in Britain, for though found elsewhere 

 on the coasts of Europe, both northwards and southwards, in no part of them does it attain such 

 perfection as in our seas, through which it is generally distributed, sparingly in some places, 

 abundantly and in gregarious assemblages in others, chiefly inhabiting the laminarian and coral- 

 line zones. The ancient Romans valued our native oysters even as we do now, and must have 

 held them in higher estimation than those of Italian shores, or they would not have brought 

 them so far for their luxurious feasts. Juvenal records the exquisite taste of the epicure : — 



" < Who 

 At the first bite each oyster's birth-place knew ; 

 Whether a Lucrine or Circsean he 'd bitten, 

 Or one from Rutupinian deeps in Britain.' " 



Although Juvenal sang the praises of the British oyster in the foregoing passage, (Satires iv. 

 140,) so wittily trauslated by Professor Forbes (History of the British Mollusca and their Shells, 

 vol. ii. p. 310), it has often excited the wonder of philosophers how any one should have had 

 courage to make the first gulp of so repulsive an object. Byron, we believe, among others, 

 says :— 



" That man had sure a palate covered o'er 

 With brass or steel, that, on the rocky shore, 

 First broke the oozy oyster's coat, 

 And risked the living morsel down his throat." 



