BRITISH OYSTERS ! OLD AND NEW. 
20 7 
of fine examples of a nearly extinct type of oyster, obtained by 
him from an early oyster-pond of the Roman period at Hampton, 
near Herne Bay, Kent. The shells occurred in pairs, of varying 
shapes, some being oblong (plate xv., fig. 13), others long (plate 
xiv., fig. 11). The lower valves are strongly costate, broadly 
ribbed; upper valves marked with strong growth-lines, margins 
approximate plain, showing closely appressed laminations, 
coloured on the edges by a reddish or purple tinge, a feature 
very unusual on the East Coast. 
I have obtained it from the Dovercourt marshes, from 
mediaeval buildings at Ipswich, and Sir James Smith added 
others to the Linnean Collection in 1770 from similar dwellings 
in Norwich. Length of oblong type figured 80 mm., breadth 
100 mm., of longer shell length 130 mm., breadth no mm. 
The oblong form is extended beyond the confluent margin 
of the inhabited portion of the shell by a superfluous growth of 
shelly matter. 
OSTREA FOULNESS 11 sp. nov. 
The only other tinted shells I know of on the Eastern coast 
came to me from Foulness Point, on the Essex coast. These 
shells are native to the ground they occur on, and are mostly 
adherent to the rock by the greater part of the under valve, 
which hides the sculpture on the specimen figured (plate xv., fig. 
14). This is seen to be rather more closely ribbed than usual. The 
shells are not large, and are very variable in their outline, due 
to their environment; valves usually compressed the fluting 
or folds tinged purple or pink; the margins of the valves touching 
each other. My largest specimen is about 100 mm. long, by 
50 mm. broad. 
The most plentiful of the Selsey oysters are of the lamellose 
type (plate xv., figs. 15 and 16), but there are others which 
vary from these considerably in their outline and structure, being 
long subtrigonal with well-marked umbones showing traces of 
former attachments. In two of these the costse are fine and 
delicately imbricated, the largest being 120 mm. long, the 
other being a coarser build and with broader ribs and with 
concentric growth marks. I do not know any living shells to 
