16 LECTURE VII. 



the brain. He observed also, that having cut 

 off the heads of some, and opening the bodies 

 twelve days afterwards, the motion of the heart 

 was still perceptible ; so slowly is the vital prin- 

 ciple discharged from these inactive animals. 



The most beautiful of all the Land Tortoises 

 is the T. Geometrica, or Geometrical Tortoise, 

 so named from the elegantly regular variegations 

 of its shell, which is very convex, and of a black 

 colour, with each piece marked by several bright 

 yellow stripes radiating from a common centre. 

 It is a native of many parts of Africa. 



A species much allied to the geometrical, 

 but much larger, is what I have myself described 

 under the name of T. radiata or the Radiated 

 Tortoise. It measures more than a foot in length; 

 is extremely convex, and nearly smooth, whereas 

 the geometrica js remarkably tubercutated : the 

 pattern is still more elaborately disposed than 

 in the former, the rays or streaks being more 

 numerous. It is a native of Madagascar, and 

 as some say of America also. 



The largest of all the Land-Tortoises is a 

 species now called the Indian Tortoise. T. In- 

 dica. It was first described by Mons. Perrault^ 



