\-2l 



oi the Chelonians in the British Museum, 188!), Dr. G. A. Boulenger eays 

 that the " pjastron is extensively united to the carapace by suture, with 

 feeble axillary and inguinal peduncles, the latter ankylosed to the fifth 

 costal plate." Sometime ago I macerated a large specimen, M. geographica, 

 until the whole plastron fell away from the carapace, thus showing that 

 there was no ankylosis of the parts. 



The Map tortoise, M. geographica, wag described by the naturalist Le 

 Sueur, in the Journal of the Philadelphia Academy for 1817. In the M6- 

 moires du Museum de Paris for 1827, Le Sueur presented the description of 

 another species of this genus from specimens which he had taken in the 

 Wabash river, at New Harmony, Ind. Neither figure nor systematic name 

 accompanied the description, although he appears to have had a name in 

 manuscript, pseudogeographica. It is evident that Le Sueur had in mind 

 the terrapin, which has for the most part gone by that name since then, 

 although the description is in some respects erroneous. The first mention 

 that I find of this manuscript name of Le Sueur is found in connection 

 with the Emi/s lesueurii, described by Dr. J. E. Gray in his Synopsis Rep- 

 tilium, 1831. It is also given by Dumeril and Bibron in Erp^tologie G6n^r- 

 ale, vol. II, p. 256, as a synonym of Emyx geographica, with the remark, 

 "jeune age." In his work, Herpetology of North America, published in 

 1842, Dr. Holbrook recognized the fact that this terrapin is distinct from 

 the earlier described geographica, and gave to it the name that Le Sueur 

 had bestowed on it in his manuscripts. He also accompanied the descrip- 

 tion with a colored plate. It is from this date, 1842, that we must reckon 

 in determining the tenability of the name j)seudogeographica. 



In ISol Dr. J. E. Gray, in his Synopsis Reptilium, p. 31, published a de- 

 scription of a species which he called Emi/s lesueurii. This supposed new 

 species was founded on either a specimen of geographica or on one of what 

 Holbrook afterwards called pseudogeographica. Dr. Gray himself, in all his 

 subsequent publications, wrote down the name lesueurii as a synonym of 

 geographica, although previously to the publication of his Catalogue of the 

 Shield Reptiles he did not recognize Le Sueur's pseudogeograjihica as being 

 distinct from the earlier described geographica. 



In 1857 Louis Agassiz, in his Natural History of the T'nited States, ar- 

 ranged both the species referred to under the genus fjraptemys. Of his 

 G'raptemys lesueurii he say : " This species is commonly called Emi/s pseudo- 

 ijeographica, but the specific name Le Sueurii is older. It is evident from his 

 reference that Gray at first applied the name of Emi/x Le Sueurii to thia 



