47 



EMYS FLORIDANA.— Lecontc. 



Plate VIII. 



Characters. Shell sub-oval, compressed at the sides, entire; longitudinally 

 rugous, slightly carinated posteriorly; nuchal plate triangular, entire; jaws without 

 teeth. 



Synonymes. Testudo floridana, Leconte, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., vol. iii. p. 100. 

 Emys floridana, Harl., Med. and Phys. Res., p. 155. 

 Emys floridana, Dum. et Bibr., Hist. Nat. des Rept, torn. ii. p. 285. 



Description. The shell is moderately gibbous, most so in the centre; it is 

 sub-oval, more or less compressed at the sides, with the margin entire; or it may 

 be sometimes very slightly emarginate behind, with a small carina along the third, 

 fourth and fifth vertebral plate. The anterior vertebral plate is urceolate, irregularly 

 quadrilateral, with its sides anti-parallel; in front it has three articulating borders; 

 behind, it is convex, and received into the second vertebral plate; the second and 

 third are hexagonal, with their lateral angles salient; the fourth is heptagonal, 

 and projecting in front; the fifth is also heptagonal, but the sides are so disposed 

 as to give it a triangular figure, with base and apex rounded. The first lateral 

 plate is triangular, with a rounded base; the second and third are hexagonal, and 

 have greater elevation than breadth; the fourth is quadrilateral; all these plates 

 are longitudinally rugous. There are twenty-five marginal plates; the nuchal or 

 intermediate, is nearly triangular, broadest behind; the anterior plate is pentagonal, 

 and broadest before; the remaining plates are all very regularly quadrilateral, 

 except the fifth, seventh and ninth, which are pentagonal. 



