58 



ANATOMY OF VERTEBRATES. 



50 



are short, as at a ; but elongate in succeeding vertebrae, b to e ; 



and usually at the eighth, 

 or ninth, fig. 49, /, 6, 

 (Lacerta), from the head 

 or tenth ( Varanus), they 

 are joined through the 

 medium of ossified hasma- 

 pophyses to the ster- 

 num. Two( Var anus), three 

 ( Chameleo, Iguana), or four 

 (Cyclodus), following ver- 

 tebras are similarly com- 

 pleted; and then the hsema- 

 pophyses are either united 

 below without intervening 

 sternum ( Chameleo), or two 

 or three of them are joined 

 by a common cartilage to 

 the cartilaginous end of 

 the sternum. The haema- 

 pophyses afterwards pro- 

 ject freely, and are reduced 

 to short appendages to 

 the pleurapophyses. These 

 also shorten, and sometimes 

 suddenly, as, e. g., after 

 the eighteenth vertebra in 

 the Monitors ( Varanus), in 

 which they end at the 

 twenty-eighth vertebra, as 

 they began, viz., in the 

 form of short straight ap- 

 pendages to the diapo- 

 physes. 



The Draco volans, fig. 

 50, is so called on account 

 of the wing-like expansions 

 from the sides of its body, 

 supported, like the hood of 

 the cobra, by slender elon- 

 gated ribs. In this little 

 skeleton of Draco voians lizard there are twenty 



vertebra, supporting movable ribs, which commence apparently 



