Originally published in 1872, this is a reprint of the 1970 facsimile was published in 2000. This reprint is made from an uncoloured edition which differs from the coloured edition only in the absence of tinting and the presence of an extra plate (LXI). This series of plates was originally made to illustrate Thomas Bell's Monograph of the Testudinata, a work in which the author intended to represent and describe not only all the known recent, but also fossil species. Publication of this book was interrupted and the plates languished in the hands of a second publisher who bought the stock before finally published them, though without accompaniment of the texts of Mr. Bell.