CHAPTER XI. 



NATURAL HISTOEY OF THE OYSTEE. 



Description of the Oyster — Controversies atout Oystei^Life — ^Do Oysters 

 live npside down ? — Tlie Spawning of Oysters — Oyster-Growth — When 

 do Oysters become reproductive for Dredging ? — Sergius Orata — Lake 

 Fusaro — Oyster- Fascines — He De Re, and Growth of the Park System 

 — Economy of the Parks — Greening the Oyster — Oyster-Growth — Spat 

 Collectors — Miscellaneous Facts. 



Zoologically the oyster is known as Ostrma edulis. Its out- 

 ward appearance is familiar to even very landward people, and 

 no human engineer could have invented so admirable a home 

 for the pulpy and headless mass of jelly that is contained within 

 the rough-looking shell. Many curious opinions have been held 

 about this shell-fish. At one time oysters were thought to be 

 8nly masses of oily or other matter, scarcely alive and insensible 

 to pain. Who would suppose, it was asked, that a portion of 

 blubber like the oyster, that could only have been first eaten by 

 some very courageous individual, would have any feeling ? But 

 we know better now, and although the organisation of the 

 moUusca is not of a high order, it is perfect of its kind, and has 

 within it indications of organs that in beings of a higher type 

 serve a loftier purpose, and point out the beginnings of nature, 

 showing how she works her way from the simplest imaginings 

 of animal life to the complex human machine. The oyster has 

 no doubt in its degree many joys and sorrows, and throbs 

 with life and pleasure, as animals do that have a higher organic 

 structure. The oyster is cmiously constructed ; but I fear that, 

 comparatively speaking, very few of my readers have ever seen a 

 perfect one, as oysters are very much mutilated, being generally 

 deprived of their beards before they are sent to table, and other- 

 wise hurt, both accidentally in the opening and by use and 

 wont, as in the case of the beard. Its mouth — it has no jaws 

 or teeth — is a kind of trunk or snout, with four lips, and leafy 



