LAND TORTOISE FROM AFRICA. 
165 
and more extended in the transverse than in the 
vertical direction. The upper surface of each of 
these plates is strongly marked with concentric 
stride ; they each present a granulated area, which, 
in the vertical plates, is central, hut in the costal 
approximates more or less to their superior margin; 
those of the remaining plates of the disk are placed 
along its marginal outline. The vertebral plates are 
indistinctly carinated. The moveable portion of 
the carapace comprises that portion of it which is 
covered by the two last vertebral plates, the last 
costal pair, and the nine posterior marginal plates ; 
tte line of flexion, therefore, passes between the 
seventh and eighth marginal, the interval between 
which is filled up with a sort of fibro-cartilaginous 
substance, the third and fourth costal, and the third 
and fourth vertebral plates. The sternum is large, 
emarginate in front, rounded posteriorly ; the gular 
plates are triangular, their apices presenting back- 
wards; the brachial are large and quadrilateral, 
rounded externally, their anterior margin the small- 
est ; the thoracic are broad and pentagonal, present- 
ing an obtuse angle anteriorly ; the abdominal are 
very large and quadrilateral, being joined exter- 
nally to two of the marginal plates, and to the 
anterior and inferior margin of the inguinal plate ; 
the femoral are trapezoidal, their anterior and in- 
ternal margin forming a right angle, the internal 
margin is much the smallest; the subcaudal are 
small and triangular; the axillary plates are small, 
and almost concealed within the shell ; their outer 
surface is triangular, the apex pointing upward and 
