226 OSTREA. OYSTER. Class VI. 



as we have at present ; of which Sergiiis Ora- 

 ta^ was the inventor, as early as the time 

 of L. Crassus the orator. He did not do 

 this for the sake of indulging his appetite, but 

 through avarice, and made great profits from 

 them. Or at a got great credit for his Lucrine 

 oysters ; for, says Pliny, the British were not 

 then known. 



The antients eat them raw, and sometimes 

 roasted. They had also a custom of stewing 

 them with mallows and docks, or Avith fish, and 

 esteemed them very-, nourishing, f 



Britain still keeps its superiority in oysters 

 over other countries. Most of our coasts pro- 

 duce them naturally, and in such places they 

 are taken by dredging, and are become an ar- 

 ticle of commerce, both raw and pickled. The 

 very shells, calcined, become an useful medi- 

 cine as an absorbent ; and in common with those 

 of other species, prove an excellent manure. 



Stews or layers of oysters are formed in 

 places, which nature never allotted as habita- 

 tions for them. Those near Colchester have 

 been long famous ; at present there are others, 

 which at lest rival the former, near the mouth of 

 the Thames. The oysters, or their spats, are 



* Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. ix. c. 54. f Athenceus, lib. ui.p.Q2. 



