6 HISTORY OF THE OYSTER. 



conjectured that the spat in twenty-four hours begins 

 to have a shell. In the mounth of May the dredgers 

 (by law of the Admiralty Court) have liberty to catch 

 all manner of oysters. . . . The reason of the scarcity 

 of oysters, and consequently of their dearness, is that 

 they are bought up by the Dutch." 



" The reason why a penalty is set upon any that 

 shall destroy the cultch is, because they fear that if 

 that be taken away the ouse will increase, and then 

 muscles and cockles will breed there and destroy the 

 oysters, they not having whereon to stick their spat. 

 .... The male oyster is black-sick, and the female 

 white -sick." 



Barbut, in his ' Genera Vermium,' published 1788, 

 states that the oyster is a reputed hermaphrodite, 

 and that the spawn which they cast in May adheres 

 to rocks and other matters at the bottom. 



The ' Systerna Naturae ' of Linnaeus, published 

 1735, and going through many editions, being merely 

 an arrangement or classification of the Animal King- 

 dom, does not give us any information. 



