[32] _Actinia mesembryanthemum_, represented in Plate VII., at the
lower right-hand corner.
[33] _Anthea cereus_, var. _smaragdina_, represented at the left hand
of Plate IX.
[34] M. Coste has lately communicated a paper to the Academy of
Sciences on the progress of his artificial oyster-beds on the western
coast of France. Several thousands of the inhabitants of the island
of Ré have been for the last four years engaged in cleansing their
muddy coast of the sediments which prevented oysters from congregating
there; and as the work advances the seed wafted over from Nieulle and
other oyster localities settles in the new beds, and, added to that
transplanted, peoples the coast, so that 72,000,000 of oysters, from
one to four years old, and nearly all marketable, is the lowest average
per annum registered by the local administration, representing, at the
rate of from 25 to 30 francs per thousand, which is the current price
in the locality, a sum of about two millions of francs, the produce
of an extremely limited surface. That the waves or currents carry
the seed of oysters is a well-known fact, since the walls of sluices
newly erected are often covered with them. In the island of Ré, the
existence of the oyster-beds, however, no longer depends upon this
contingency, they being now in a state of permanent self-reproduction.
The distinction of oyster-beds into those of collection and those of
reproduction is quite unnecessary, since the property of reproduction
belongs to them all. In some localities it is sufficient to prepare the
emerging banks for collection to see them soon covered with seed; but
in other places nothing would be obtained without transplanting proper
subjects, an operation which by no means impairs their reproductive
qualities. The concession of emerging banks is anxiously applied for
by the inhabitants of the coast; the more so as improvements in the
working of this branch of trade are of daily occurrence. Thus, Dr.
Kemmerer, of Ré, covers a number of tiles with a coating of a kind of
mastic, brittle enough to enable him to detach the small oysters from
it. When this coating is well covered with seed he gets it off all in
one piece, which he carries to the place where the seed is to grow. The
same tile he coats a second time, and so on as long as the seed will
deposit upon it. In short, wherever the violence of the currents and
the instability of the bottom do not present irresistible obstacles the
cultivation of the oysters has become a lucrative business.
[35] _Alcyonium digitatum_, for which see Plate VII. It is the white
object near the middle of the picture, partly concealed by the
intervening leaf of green _Ulva_.
[36] _Sagartia rosea_, of which a specimen, only partially open, is
delineated in the centre foreground of Plate VII.
[37] _Sagartia miniata._
[38] _Sagartia nivea_; two of this species, one closed, the other
partially opened, are seen at the left corner of the foreground in
Plate VII.
[39] _Sagartia venusta_, a group of which occupies the right-hand side
of Plate IX., including both expanded and closed individuals.
[40] _Sag. bellis_, _sphyrodeta_, _troglodytes_, _pura_.
[41] See my _History of the British Sea-anemones_.
[42] _Actinoloba dianthus._
[43] For a fuller account of these organs and their offensive function,
which constitute an apparatus not exceeded in interest by any that
I know of in the whole realm of natural history, I beg to refer the
reader to my _Naturalist’s Rambles on the Devonshire Coast_, and my
_Actinologia Britannica_, _passim_.
[44] _Tealia crassicornis_, which forms the subject of Plate VIII.
[45] _Lucernaria campanulata_ is represented in the upper right-hand
corner of Plate VII.