10 Annual Report. [Jan. & Feb. 



of Sir George King's Materials for a Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 

 In thanking the Colonial Government, the Council forwarded 30 copies of 

 the Society's Journal from 1889-1901 containing the earlier numbers 

 of the Flora and promised the same number of the future issues. The 

 Council further proposed to add to the title-page of the later issues of the 

 Journal the following words "Published with the assistance of His 

 Excellency the Governor of the Straits Settlements." 



Of the Journal, Part III, three numbers were published (No. 2 of 

 1901 and Nos. 1-2 of 1902) containing 137 pages of letter-press and 

 7 plates. In connection with the proposed discontinuance of the grant 

 of Rs. 1,000 per year for Journal, Part III, from the Assam Administra- 

 tion, the Secretary to the Chief Commissioner of Assam was furnished 

 with a report showing the work done and the necessity for the continuance 

 of the grant subject to a further consideration of the question five years 

 hence. On a note by Mr. E, A. Gait, the Anthropological Secretary, 

 relative to contributions to Part III, of the Society's Journal, the Council 

 agreed to have short notes on Anthropological subjects published as a 

 supplement to Part III, of the Journal and they further authorised 

 the addition of a similar supplement to other parts of the Journal. 



Proceedings. 



The papers and abstracts published in the Proceedings are, some of 



them at least very interesting. The proceedings serve as a vehicle for 



the ready circulation of interesting discoveries made by busy men who 



cannot write long papers for the Journal and do not wish to keep back 



information which might be useful. Babu Manmohan Raya's paper on 



the Rajavancis and Cochs removes a common notion that these are one 



and the same caste. The writer proves that these castes belong to two 



distinct races of men ; the Rajavancis are of Mongolian while the Cochs 



are of Dravidian descent. Babu Satish Chandra Acharya's paper on the 



Licchavi race of ancient India attempts to prove that even 2,400 years 



ago Mongolian tribes selling in India passed as Kshatriyas. Mahamaho- 



padhyaya Haraprasad Shastri's paper on the Magi shows that the ancient 



sacerdotal caste of the Magi in Persia settled in India from time to time 



and introduced astrology and necromancy in the country and that their 



descendants are still to be found all over India exercising the profession 



of astrologer passing as brahmans of an inferior quality. The same 



writer has another paper on the organization of the caste lystem in 



Bengal in the thirteenth century by Ballala Sen belonging to the last 



Hindu dynasty of Bengal. The Raja from political reasons degraded 



the Suvarnavanikas and raised the Kaivarttas in the hierarchy of the 



caste system. 



