xvi Transactions of tlie South African Philosophical Society, 



Groenfontein. The black colour is not due to any peculiarity of the 

 bees, but to the natural colour of the nectar of the flowers from 

 which the bees obtained it. Each flower of the plant, Melianthus 

 comosus, contains a drop of sweet black fluid, which is so dark that 

 one sees it shining through the calyx. The honey does not contain 

 any harmful ingredient. 



(2) A specimen of Adenium Namaquanum from Little Namaqua- 

 land, kindly sent by Mr. Krapohl. The plant is armed with a 

 dense mass of spines which are up to 3 inches long. Leaves and 

 flowers are produced at the apex, but disappear during the dry 

 season. It belongs to the natural order of Apocynacese. 



(3) A specially large group of Hoodia Gordoni in flower. From 

 the Karroo, near Grootfontein. The flowers are up to 2|- inches in 

 diameter, and as they are very numerous they make the plant very 

 conspicuous for a few weeks. Like most of its allies, these flowers 

 have an evil smell. 



Dr. L. Peringuey exhibited a Bushman's arrow tipped with 

 chipped stones. The specimen was sent to the late Sir Langham 

 Dale some fifty years ago, and presented by his son Langham 

 Dale, Esq. No such weapon was believed to be in existence, and 

 it throws a great deal of light on the practical use of these minute 

 chippings of quartz or other hard material which abound nearly 

 everywhere here, near water and even in the middens or stations of 

 the Strand Looper Hottentots. On the tip of a third part of the shaft 

 of the arrow there is a flat triangular piece of cement, seemingly made 

 of gum, and on the edges of this cement are inserted the quartz chips, 

 with the cutting edge outward. The object of these minute stone 

 implements, which must not be confounded with the tiny borers 

 and scrapers used for making ostrich-shell disks, is now ascer- 

 tained. The hunter trusted more to the poison than to the force of 

 delivery for killing his quarry. This discovery is very important from 

 an antiquarian point of view. But another point of possibly greater 

 importance attaches to it because in Australia the aboriginals are 

 known to have made use of similar tiny implements for giving a 

 cutting edge to their spears. We now know of two cases in which 

 South African Aboriginals hafted or set their stone implements in 

 the manner obtaining among the Australian Aboriginals. 



Dr. L. PERINGUEY exhibited photographs and rubbings of " stone 

 engravings " from different districts of the Cape Colony, enlarging 

 on the remarkable artistic merit of some of them. 



A paper on "Earth Temperatures at Kimberley," by Dr. J. E. 

 Sutton, was read. 



This paper is a preliminary discussion on the earth temperatures 



