EMYS LUTARIA. 
latiora quam alta; quartum hexagonum, postice sinuatum, subcarinatum ; quintum 
irregulariter pentagonum, carinatum: costalia declivia; quorum primum et quartum 
trapezoidea, secundum et tertium quadrata, quartum omnium minimum : marginalia 
laevia, quadrata, margine extremo paulo replicato: scutum nuchale quadratum, antice 
angustatum. Sternum planum, ad latera rotundato-subcarinatum, antice truncatum, 
postice trigono-emarginatum ; nigricans, vel olivaceum, flavo plus minus variegatum: 
scuta gularia triangularia; humeralia trapezoidea, intus angustiora; pectoralia et 
abdominalia quadrata; femoralia trapezoidea ; analia rhomboidea. 
Testee osseae mensura. 
unc. lin. 
Longitudo dorsi. 5 5 
Latitudo ejusdem. 4 0 
Longitudo sterni. 5 2 
Altitudo. 2 0 
The want of a proper appretiation of the characters of the Testudinata has 
in no instance been more strikingly shown, or led to greater confusion and 
difficulty, than in the case of the present species. From the time of Linnaeus 
until the present hour, this doubt and confusion have continued to perplex 
naturalists. The common freshwater Tortoise of Europe, described by Lace- 
pede, from different ages and varieties, under the names of “la jaune,” “la 
ronde,” “la bourbeuse,” is, in fact, Terrapene europcea , the structure of which, 
as a Box Tortoise, I demonstrated in the second volume of the Zoological 
Journal. These three designations of Lacepede were, it appears, a sufficient 
authority to lead many subsequent writers to describe these different varieties 
or ages of the species in question as distinct, retaining the names of europcea 
and lutaria. On a careful examination of Lacepede’s descriptions, however, 
I thought I could here and there discover some traces of a different species; 
and his figure of “la bourbeuse” in the original edition of his great work, 
appears to me certainly to have been taken from an individual of that now 
under consideration, and for which I have retained the name of lutana , 
