OSTREAD^. “-OYSTER. 
69 
upper valve flat^ or nearly so^ with scales or laminse of a 
yellowish -brown ; the lower valve convex^ and foliaceous^ 
of a pale pinkish-white^ with streaks of purplish -pink ; 
transversely striated. Hinge toothless ; ligament inter- 
nalj of an olivaceous-brown ; beaks small. The interior 
of the shell white and polished ; sometimes the purplish- 
pink colour of the margins showing through. 
The edible oyster of Great Britain is supposed to be 
superior to those of other European countries^ and to 
attain to a greater degree of perfection on our coasts ; and 
it was much valued by the Romans^ who transplanted 
numbers from our shores^ and placed them in artificial 
beds in the Lucrine Lake. Sergius Grata first invented 
these oyster-beds^ not for the gratification of gluttony^ 
but of avarice, as he contrived to make a large income 
by this exercise of his ingenuity/^* Apicius first dis- 
covered the art of preserving oysters fresh for a consi- 
derable time, and sent some from Italy to the Emperor 
Trajan, while he was on an expedition against the Par- 
thians, which were found on their arrival to be as good 
as on the day they were gathered. f This mode may 
possibly have been the same as that which is practised 
in Italy at the present day, where, as Poli tells us, they 
are carried from Tarentum to Naples in bags, tightly 
packed with snow, which not only by its coolness pre- 
serves them, but also by preventing them from opening 
their bivalves, enables them to retain in the shells suffi- 
cient moisture to preserve their lives for a long period. { 
There were other places from whence oysters w'ere 
procured, and Mucianus speaks with rapture of those 
* Pliny, Nat. Hist. vol. ii. bk. ix. chap. 79. 
t Daniel’s ^ Rural Sports,’ voL iv. p. 194. 
X Poli, ' Testacea ntriusque Sicilise.’ 
