65 



EMYS FLORIDANA.— Lecon/e. 



Plate VIII. 



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

 rugous; nuchal plate triangular, entire; jaws without teeth. 



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

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

 Emys floridana, Dumeril et Bibron, 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 articu- 

 lating 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 slightly rugous longitudinally. There are twenty-five marginal 

 plates; the nuchal or intermediate is nearly triangular, broadest behind; the 

 anterior is pentagonal, and broadest before; the remaining plates are all very 

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

 Vol. I.— 9 



