The Anodon cygnea (Fig. III., Pl. XVI.) is broad, deep, and light, and is sometimes employed for skimming the cream off milk. The genus is divided into many groups, the principal forms of which are represented in Pl. XVI.
The river mussels, Unio, are, like the Anodon, found in the muddy bottoms of all countries. The animal resembles the Anodon, but the shell presents a toothed hinge. The lower face of the valve is nacrous, but shaded with purplish violet, copreous, and iridescent; the anterior face is of a green colour, which varies from tender to blackish green.
Among the species found in European seas may be noted the Rhine mussel, a large species, the nacre of which is employed for ornamental purposes. Unio littoralis (Cuvier), represented in Fig. 151, and the painter's mussel, Unio pictorum (Fig. 152), employed in the arts to contain certain colours. Those known as the river mussels are leathery, of an insipid taste, and scarcely eatable: the finest species are found in the great American rivers.
Plate XVI.—Anodonta.
I. Anodonta angulata. (Lea.)
II. Anodonta ensiformis. (Spix.)
III. Anodonta cygnea. (Linn.)
IV. Anodonta magnifica. (Lea.)
V. Anodonta anserina. (Spix.)
VI. Anodonta latomarginata. (Lea.)
Mussels, as we have seen, produce pearls of moderate value. Linnæus, who was aware of the origin of the Pintadine pearls, and of pearls in general, was also aware of the possibility of producing them artificially from various molluscs. He suggested bringing together a number of mussels, piercing holes in their shells with an augur in order to produce a wound, and afterwards leave them for five or six years, to give the pearl time to form. The Swedish Government consented to try the experiment, and long did so in secret; pearls were produced, but they were of no value, and the enterprise was abandoned as unsuccessful.
Fig. 152. Unio pictorum (Linnæus).
Scottish pearls were much celebrated in the middle ages, and between the years 1761 and 1784 pearls to the value of £10,000 were sent to London from the rivers Tay and Isla; "and the trade carried on in the corresponding years in the present century," says Mr. Bertram, "is far more than double that amount." The pearl, according to Mr. Bertram, is found in a variety of the mussel, which is characterised by the valves being united by a broad hinge, and having a strong fibrous byssus, with which it attaches itself to other shells, to rocks, and other solid substances. "The pearl fisheries of Scotland," he adds, "may become a source of wealth to the people living on the large rivers, if prudently conducted." Mr. Unger, a dealer in gems in Edinburgh, having discerned the capabilities of the Scotch pearl as a gem of value, has established a scale of prices which he gives for them, according to their size and quality; and it is now a fact that the beautiful pearls of our Scottish streams are admired beyond the orient pearl. Empresses and queens, and royal and noble ladies, have made large purchases of these gems; and Mr. Unger estimates the sum paid to pearl-finders in the summer of 1864 at £10,000. The localities successfully fished have been the classic Doon, the Forth, the Tay, the Don, the Spey, the Isla, and most of the Highland rivers of note. Scottish pearls are much whiter in colour than oriental. What tint they have is bluish, while those of the East are yellowish. Pink pearls are produced by several exotic species of Unio.