its identity in the egg, which is thus fertilized and at once 

 begins to develop into a new oyster, becoming what is 

 called spawn or spat. 



With the American and Portuguese kinds, the eggs are 

 cast forth in the waters, and, unless by accident they meet 

 the fertilizing male cells speedily, both pcridi. Though the 

 embryos of these oysters are more numerous by far than 



A Portuguese "Shoehorn" Oyster. 



those produced by our own biyalve, their chance of being 

 fertilized is far less. It was, by the way, for the Portuguese 

 oyster that Mr. Frank Buckland claimed the double advan- 

 tage, that after eating the oyster, you could use the shell 

 for a shoehorn. 



