﻿i Pegu). 



Indies. The larger monographs of Dr. Prain, of which each forms 

 a sufficiently large volume by itself, it is not proposed to reissue. 



Each paper is published complete, with the original paging, and 

 its original index, if any; while there is a current paging added at the 

 bottom of each, page to which the general index refers. The largest 

 space is occupied by the following papers : — I. The non-indigenous 

 species of the Andaman Flora (pp. 26). IX. The Vegetation of the 

 Coco Group (pp. 168). XIV. On the Flora of Narcondam and Barren 

 Island (pp. 47). XV. Botany of the Laccadives (pp. 88). Other 

 papers refer to the Botany of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 

 Diamond Island (which lies between the Andamans 

 A considerable portion of the whole volume is thus 

 sdth the "Andaman Sea" of Prain— an area cut off from 

 the Malay Peninsula and Burma by a narrow sea-depression of at 

 least 3000-6000 ft. The flora of each island consists of indigenous, 

 accidentally introduced, and cultivated species. 



The papers of Dr. Prain enter fully into the questions of general 

 scientific interest regarding the manner of arrival of species on 

 islands, their establishing themselves there, and the permanence of 

 their establishment. Dr. Prain compares the present state of the 

 colonist vegetation with that recorded by botanists who formerly 

 visited the islands, and gives numerous extensive tables showing 

 the distribution of colonists (and suspected colonists) in adjacent 

 islands and countries. Where the indigenous flora offers to the 

 botanic traveller more objects of attention than he has time to 

 study satisfactorily, he too frequently neglects the cultivated plants 

 and weeds— at least as likely to throw light on many points of 

 geologic and practical interest as the detecting and describing new 

 and critical species. 



The title-page of the present volume says, "chiefly botanical," 

 and it might have said, "all botanical, except the first." Tins is 

 on the "Angami Nagas," and is an account of the English 

 m Assam called officially the "Naga Hills," and more especially of 

 its inhabitants. The account given of the chief tribe, the Angami 

 Wagas, is most accurate, as Dr. Prain was stationed there for a year 

 in this district m the early part of his career. It is of the greater 

 value and wider interest in that much that he states regarding the 

 Angami tribe, their religion, domestic customs, &c, holds for all 

 "Kookies" (the name under which Col. McCulloch included all the 

 Indo-Chinesehill-men from the Gatos at the bend of the Brahma- 

 pootra to the hill-Chinese in South-west China), and indeed to a 

 great extent for the hill-men of the eastern half of the Himalaya. 



partiality for eating dog. All the Kookie tribes are (as we first find 

 them) without any organised government, with no religion but a 

 belief in wizards and evil spirits, head-takers with no respect for 

 human life, treacherous— in a word, thorough savages ; but they 

 become "tame" very quickly— they recognise at once the value of 

 a government which protects life and property, and gladly receive 

 the missionary or any other person who will instruct them in the 



