xxiv Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa. 
fragments be found. A feature of the hitherto unrecorded burial rites is 
the placing of fiat stones, occasionally painted, on the hunched-up body 
resting on its side. One of these stones has polychrome paintings of the 
Bushman type, but, unlike any of these paintings, in this one the eye and 
an attempt at facial delineation is noticeable. The evidence of the bone 
and stone implements found in this sepulture not only indicates that the 
two industries prevailed simultaneously, but also that implements of 
palaeolithic and neolithic type were coeval. It can now be said that in 
South Africa the hiatus which in Europe, or in the Palaearctic Eegions, 
separates the palaeolithic from the neolithic, is now proved not to have 
existed. 
"Observations on the Inheritance of Character in Zea Mays, L.," 
by T. Buett-Davy. 
I. In Eed Cuzco, and some other breeds of red maize, the red colouring 
matter is confined to the pericarp, and is therefore a fruit character ; 
it does not appear in the first cross between a white male and a red 
female. In a " red dent" breed the red pigment occurs in the aleurone 
layer ; it is therefore a seed character ; it is dominant to whiteness. 
When this breed is crossed with a " white sugar" breed the results in 
the second generation are approximately : — 
Eed : Starchy, 56-25 per cent. ; Sugary, 18-75 per cent. = 75 per cent. 
White : Starchy, 18-75 per cent. ; Sugary, 6*25 per cent. = 25 per cent. 
A single grain has been seen, in which the starchy character appears 
in one half, the sugary character in the other. 
II. The number of rows on a maize ear, within certain limits, is subject 
to fluctuating variations, which may perhaps be affected by season or food 
supply, or both. 
III. When an 8-row type is crossed with an 18-row type, both 
characters disappear in the heterozygous form, and an intermediate type 
is produced, in which there are 10, 12, or 14 rows, 12 rows greatly 
predominating. 
IV. A white-cobbed breed crossed with a red-cobbed produces a red- 
cob in the first filial generation. Eesult of reciprocal cross is the same. 
" On the Early Babylonian Eclipses of the Sun," by E. Nevill. 
On the fourteenth line of Tablet No. 35968 of the British Museum 
Collection, Mr. King has deciphered the record : — 
" On the twenty-sixth day of the month Sivan in the seventh year the 
day was turned into night and fire in the midst of heaven. . . ." 
From collateral evidence contained on the tablet the author sup- 
ports Mr. King's contention that the phenomenon referred to is a total 
eclipse of the sun, but differs from Dr. Cowell, who has identified it with 
the eclipse of B.C. 1062, July 31st. The author has examined the features 
