136 D. Prain — An undescribed Araliaceoua genus. [Dec, 



returned to Delhi and the Sayyad adherents took possession of the 

 place. They expected that Farrukhsiyar would now be a mere puppet 

 in their hands. But Farrukhsiyar was obstinate and refused to move 

 according to their directions. There was nothing for it but to depose 

 Farukhsiyar and bring out one of the imprisoned scions of the house 

 of Taimur and place him on the throne. Accordingly on February 

 28th, 1719, Rafi'u-d-darajat, the youngest of the three sons of Rafi'u- 

 sh-shan, was taken just as he was found in his ordinary clothes with a 

 string of pearls round his neck, and was seated straightway by the 

 wazir and Ajit Singh on the jewelled peacock throne in the diwan~i~ l Gm. 

 Farrukhsiyar was seized, blinded and imprisoned in the room over the 

 Tirpoliya or triple gate within the fortress. After an imprisonment of 

 two months, during which he seems to have been treated with unneces- 

 sary harshness, he was put to death on the night of April 27th, 

 1719. 



Mr. Irvine cannot hold it wrong to have removed from power such 

 a worthless thing as Farrukhsiyar. Nor does he think that the Sayyads 

 were specially to blame for blinding him, which was the usage of the 

 day. He condemns the excessive strictness of the confinement and the 

 execution. The most prominent element in Farrukhsiyar's character 

 was weakness. He was strong neither for evil nor for good. He might 

 have shown himself amiable and inoffensive, leaving his powerful minis- 

 ters to take their own course. He might have got rid of them at the 

 earliest possible moment after his accession, following the example of 

 many of his illustrious predecessors. But Farrukhsiyar was not 

 morally strong enough to do anything decisive. Consequently for seven 

 years the Government was in a condition of unstable equilibrium. In 

 private life he was profuse and liberal, which made him the darling of the 

 lower orders. He loved fine clothes and good horses. He was passion- 

 ately fond of wrestling, archery, horsemanship, hunting, polo-playing, and 

 other soldierly exercises, and was physically a fine man. Mr. Irvine 

 believes that the date of his birth was the 19th Ramazan, 1094 H. He 

 proclaimed himself emperor at Patna on the 29th Safar, 1124 H. or 

 March 6th, 1712. The only well-known edifice constructed in his reign 

 was a third arch of marble to the mosque at the Qntb, added in 1130 H. 



4. Noviciae Indicae XXII. An undescribed Araliaceous genus from 

 Upper Burma — By D. Prain. 



(Abstract.) 



Among the plants obtained by a native collector of the Royal Botanic 

 Garden, Calcutta, while working in the Kachin Hills under the kind 

 supervision of Lieutenant Cruddas, S.C., Commandant of the Military 



