SYNOPSIS REPTILIUM. 



REPTILIA. 



Animalia vertebrata, pulmonibus respirantia, sanguine 

 rubro frigido, corde unilocular! et biaurito, cute squamosa. 

 Ovipara vel ovovipara. 



This class, the Reptilia of Brongniart, is part of the Am- 

 phibia of Linne, and answers to the Pholidota of Merrem. 



The skin is clothed with horny imbedded plates or with 

 imbricate scales, covered by a thin, often deciduous epidermis. 



The bones of the skull are usually divided by sutures, and 

 the neck is furnished with several vertebrae. The ribs are 

 perfect; they often surround the body like a ring, and are 

 sometimes dilated on the sides and united together, so as to 

 include the body as it were in a bony case. 



The animals respire by cellular lungs, which are furnished 

 with a windpipe, strengthened by cartilaginous rings. The 

 heart has a 5ingle ventricle, divided into two or more cells, 

 giving origin to two arteries, and receiving the cold red blood 

 by two veins from two auricles. 



The penis is always distinct, and both it and the vagina of 

 the female are often forked. 



The eggs are sometimes hatched in the body of the mo- 

 ther ; a process which, under peculiar circumstances, as the 

 want of a convenient place to deposit them, will take place 

 even in those species which usually lay them. When they 

 are laid, they are covered with hard shells, and are furnished 

 with a thick internal lining. The young are like the mother, 

 and do not undergo any transformations in their growth. 



The Reptilia have been divided by Cuvier and other 

 naturalists into three or four orders, from the development 



B 



