THE OTSTEE. 95 



the marvellously clever imitation which is worn, wit- 

 tingly, by many a gracious lady, and unwittingly by 

 many another, we should have another interesting story 

 to tell. But these imitations may be considered as 

 frauds upon our placid creditor the oyster — or, shall we 

 say, compositions with him, and beneath the notice of, 

 debtors who are trying to behave honestly to a bivalve. 

 Properly speaking, however, the Pearl oyster {Avi- 

 cula mar-garitacea), from which the greater number 

 of pearls, and the largest quantity of mother-of-pearl 

 is obtained, is not an oyster strictly so called, but be- 

 longs to an allied genus. The pearl oyster is an oval- 

 pointed recurved-edged mussel; the lower shell with a 

 hood-shaped hollow point, the upper one like a cover, 

 leafy and pearly, of a rosy purple-white colour. The 

 common oyster ( Ostrea edulis), on the contrary, has a • 

 round-oval mussel-shell, thin towards the edges, with 

 tiled leaves adhering to one another, the upper shell 

 quite flat. Some variety exists in these, some having 

 elongated edges, owing to the difference of age. 



Gentle reader ! when Queen Mary, whom men call 

 " Bloody Mary," died, and Queen Elizabeth, Protestant 

 Elizabeth, came to the throne, Osorius, the good Bishop of 

 Arcoburge, a staunch bishop of the Church of Eome, sent 

 her a sugared pill, which he hoped would at once convert 

 the queen, and drive out the '' obnoxious heresy" from 

 the land. That all might read it, he himself wrote it in 

 Latin: ^^ JSpistola ad Clarissimam Principam JElizabe- 

 tliam ;'''' had it translated into French, which honest old 

 Strype says ''gave great offence," as '' une hien longue 



