12 Annual Report. [Jan. & Feb. 



Journal have been issued containing a number of important and interest- 

 ing papers, botany, zoology and general subjects being all well represented. 



Among the botanical papers are included a further important 

 contribution by Sir George King of Materials for a Flora of the Malayan 

 Peninsula, which carries the work on to the end of the Calyciflora?, 

 eight orders being included and eighteen new species described. Some 

 new species of Orchideaa from North-West and Central India have 

 been described by Mr. J. F. Duthie and a new Indian Dendrobium by 

 Major Prain, I. M.S. An important paper entitled On the Variation 

 of the Flower of Ranunculus Arvensis has been contributed by Mr. I. H. 

 BurkilJ, based on the laborious examination of over 6,000 flowers, curves 

 illustrating the variations of the different parts being worked out, 

 and he finds that the sepals vary least, then the petals, then the carpels, 

 while the stamens vary most ; so that the variation of this flower is 

 broadly similar to what is seen in a general view of the whole Phan- 

 erogamic Sub- Kingdom. 



The Zoological series contain a variety of papers, among which the 

 following may be mentioned : a list of Butterflies of Hong-Kong and 

 Southern China by the late Lionel de Niceville, the last contribution to 

 science of that hard-working and gifted naturalist and some new species 

 of Hymenoptera, by Major C. G. Nurse. Mr. F. Finn has contributed 

 several interesting papers on variations in Indian Birds, illustrated 

 by five plates, on hybrids between the Guinea Fowl and the Common 

 Fowl and on specimens of two Mauritian Birds. An interesting 

 series of notes on Animals in the Alipore Zoological Gardens have 

 been contributed by the Superintendent of the Garden, Rai R. B. 

 Sanyal Bahadur, including the subjects of Telegony and Melanic species 

 of the Common Palm Squirrel. A paper on A Collection of Birds 

 from Upper Burma, by Lieut. H. Wood and F. Finn, includes a 

 description of two species illustrated by plate which had not previously 

 been found among the Indian fauna, while several very rare birds are in 

 the collection, which has nearly all been presented by Lieut. Wood 

 to the Indian Museum. Major J. Manners-Smith has contributed a paper 

 on Wolf Hybrids in Gilgit. Lastly, Dr. Harold H. Mann has presented 

 an interesting note on the life history of the insect known popularly 

 as the mosquito blight which causes such extensive damage on tea garden, 

 with regard to which he concludes that the whole life history is spent 

 on the tea bushes and not partly on other trees in the jungle close 

 by as previously thought, a very important discovery from the 

 practical point of view. 



Among the general papers is an important one entitled Studies 

 in the Chemistry and Physiology of the Tea Leaf, also by Dr. Mann, 



