1881. ] Recent Mollusca during the year 188o. 707 
comparative plate of embryo forms) is chiefly an amplification. 
The first memoir concludes with a discussion on the formation of 
the digestive tract, the shell and the mantle, and the relation of the 
facts observed to the Gastrzea theory. 
Apropos of the American oyster, a letter dated Gibraltar, June 
14, 1880, from Mr. Francis Winslow, U.S.N., to Professor W. K. 
Brooks, appears in the January NaTurauist of the present year 
(p. 57), giving an account of an attempt made to fertilize some 
Cadiz oysters, and the unexpected agreement, so far as the obser- 
ver was able to determine, of the development with that of the 
American form. Mr. Winslow says: “ So far as these results go, 
they prove that the artificial propagation of the European oyster 
is practicable to just the same extent as our own, and I think it 
throws grave doubts on the theory that the embryo is protected 
within the shell, and that the impregnation occurs there and no- 
where else.” 
The reporter in examining the exhibition of oysters at the 
Paris Exposition in 1878, saw shells of a species of oyster in the 
collections which was referred to as the “ Portuguese” oyster, 
and which he could not distinguish from the shells of O. virgint- 
ana. These Portuguese oysters are regarded with contempt by 
the French oyster-cultivators, who advertise, as a merit, that 
their particular parks are free from contamination by this objec- 
tionable variety. They are said to be free from the coppery 
flavor of O. edulis, and to be larger and tougher—just the quali- 
ties ascribed to American oysters by those who are accustomed 
to the O. edulis. The observations on the embryology of the 
European oyster were all made on the O. eduls. If, therefore, 
these Cadiz native oysters were (as may be suspected) the “ Por- 
tuguese”” oysters of the French, and identical (as seems not 
impossible) with O. virginiana, the discrepancy would be ex- 
plained without throwing discredit on the researches of those 
European naturalists who have examined the other species. Mr. 
Winslow, under the direction of the U.S. Coast Survey, made 
Some very meritorious surveys of a part of the Chesapeake oys- 
ter beds in 1879. His report was published in the Report of the 
Maryland Fish Commission for 1880, by permission of the Super- 
intendent of the Coast Survey; and its value, as we are informed, 
since been recognized by the French Société d’Acclimatation, 
Which has awarded a bronze medal to the author. 
