[156] “Deep-sea” oysters.
[157] In Asia Minor. See B. v. c. 32, where it is called “Grynia.”
[158] In Lemnos. See B. iv. c. 23, and B. v. c. 32.
[159] This is an error: the statement is made, not in B. ix., but in B. ii. c. 109.
[160] See B. ix. c. 74. It is at the spawning season that this milky liquid is found in the oyster; a period at which the meat of the fish is considered unwholesome as food. We have a saying that the oyster should never be eaten in the months without an r; that the same, too, was the opinion in the middle ages is proved by the Leonine line:
“Mensibus erratis vos ostrea manducatis.”
“In the r’d months you may your oysters eat.”
[161] See B. iii. c. 9. Horace speaks of the oysters of Circeii, B. ii. Sat. 4. l. 33.
[162] There has been considerable discussion among the commentators as to the meaning of the word “spondylus” here. We are inclined to adopt the opinion of Venette, and to think that it means the so-called “meat” of the oyster. It must be short, and consequently plump and comparatively destitute of beard, and it must not be fleshy, as that would imply a degree of toughness not desirable in an oyster. The words “nec fibris laciniata ac tota in alvo,” only seem to be an amplification of the preceding ones, “spondylo brevi et non carnoso.”
[163] Literally, “Having beautiful eyebrows.”