NATIONAL FISHERY CONGRESS. 307 



very neatly all damage done any part of his shell, even to the making of a new hinge; 

 or, should any foreign substance enter his shell which he can not expel, he covers it 

 with this substance, and so rapidly does he work that he will put on the first coat or 

 film in about 24 hours. 



Lime for shell making is one of the prime necessities for the rapid development 

 of the oyster, and all waters deficient in lime are by just so much unfit for the perfect 

 development of the oyster. Oysters in waters deficient in lime have shells so thin (in 

 both yqung and mature oysters) that they fall an easy prey to their enemies, and for 

 the same reason are ill-suited for shipping to any distant market. Here, again, the 

 west coast of Florida, with its coral sea foundation and its wonderful phosphate 

 deposits along the shores, sending additional lime to the oyster-beds by every inflow of 

 fresh water, presents very great advantages for the most rapid and perfect development 

 of the oyster. This inflow of fresh water from the many springs scattered along this 

 coast is of peculiar advantage to the oyster, because it reduces the specific gravity of 

 the sea water to a point generally admitted to be most suitable for the rapid develop- 

 ment of the oyster. 



As to its anatomy: The oyster has a heart and blood circulation, as we find in 

 other animals. He has a pair of lips, and a mouth situated in the back or hinged part of 

 the shell (and not, as popularly supposed, in the front or open end of the shell). He has 

 a full set of digestive organs stomach, liver, intestinal canal, etc. His food consists 

 of about 90 per cent of vegetable matter, about 5 per cent of mineral matter, and 5 per 

 cent of a mixture of the reproductive organs of seaweed, etc. This vegetable food is 

 chiefly diatoms (a low form of vegetable matter having the peculiar quality of great 

 activity in the water). These diatoms are much more active during a bright, sunny 

 day than on cloudy or foggy days, and this is another of the many reasons why the 

 oyster in Florida (the land of sunshine) grows more rapidly than in other sections 

 subject to cloudy and foggy weather, to say nothing of snow and ice and a general 

 temperature of the water frequently below the point of advantageous feeding. 



The natural food for the oyster, found in all sea water, can be supplemented by 

 many land products. The two most desirable in Florida are the pollen of our pine 

 trees and the bloom of bur palmetto. By using the bloom of both saw and cabbage 

 palmettoes this food can be furnished them for about five months of the year. 



The oyster has not only sensory organs of smell, but eyes also to see. These eyes 

 are, however, not highly developed, self-focusing eyes, as we find in animals of higher 

 order, but rather a rudimentary eye or eyes scattered all over the body of the oyster, 

 and so constituted that they serve the oyster in or out of the water as admirably as (Jo 

 the eyes of animals of a higher organization. The oyster has also nerves and brains^ 

 not highly developed, but sufficiently so for all his needs and purposes. The repro- 

 ductive organs of an oyster are simply wonderful as to their capacity for egg-production. 



Unlike the European oyster (Ostrea edulis), which is hermaphrodite, our American 

 oyster (Ostrea virginica) is unisexual. By this I mean that every oyster lays each 

 season either (and only) male eggs or female eggs ; but I believe that it is an established 

 fact that the same oyster that lays male eggs one season may lay female eggs the next 

 season, or vice versa. The female, according to size, age, and vigor, will lay from 

 1,000,000 to 40,000,000 eggs annually. This calculation is based on the size of the egg 

 as compared with the size of the ovarium at the time of laying. Both male and female 

 eggs at the spawning season are swept out of the ovarium into the water, where the 

 female egg becomes fertile by contact with male eggs. It is highly probable that not 



