263 



Resolved, — That the thanks of the Academy be given to 

 Mr. Nugent. 



The Secretary announced to the meeting, that the Com- 

 missioners for the Improvement of the Shannon had for- 

 warded a further donation of antiquities found in the bed of 

 that river to the Museum ; together with a section and plans 

 of the small tower at Clonmacnoise. 



Resolvej), — That the thanks of the Academy be given 

 to the Commissioners. 



Dr. Allman exhibited a remarkable form of Saxifraga 

 Leucanthemifolia, presenting the retrograde metamorphosis 

 of flowers into bulbs, which were thickly scattered over the 

 inflorescence, occupying the position of the leafy tufts de- 

 scribed by Robert Brown in his Saxifraga Foliosa. 



Rev. Samuel Butcher read a paper by the Rev. Edward 

 Hincks, D. D., " On Persepolitan Writing." 



In this paper various rectifications of the received mode 

 of reading the first kind of Persepolitan. writing were pro- 

 posed; and an alphabet, or rather a combined alphabet and 

 syllabary for the second was given, diff'ering in some important 

 respects from that of Westergaard. 



Academy, are all human, and consist of the ribs, vertebrae, and the ends of 

 thelong bones, together with pieces of the skull, and some joints of the fingers 

 of a full-grown person, and also several bones of a very young child, none of 

 which had been subject to the action of fire. But among the parcel forwarded 

 to me by Mr. Nugent, are several fragments of incinerated human bones. 

 Either these latter were portions of the same bodies bui-ned, or they belonged 

 to an individual sacrificed to the manes of the person whose grave this was ; 

 and I am inclined to think the latter is the more probable, from the circum- 

 ' stances in which similar remains have been discovered in other localities. 

 There were no urns, weapons, or ornaments of any description discovered in 

 connexion with this tumulus ; but Mr. Nugent states, that in the field where 

 it was opened, small stone chambers, or kistvaens, have at various times 

 been dug up, and in one of these a long, fiat, and narrow skull was some time 

 since discovered." W. R. W. 



