1904.] Falters. 11 



(Abstract.) 



Legends counect the cognomen Balimaiii with the name of the 

 priestly caste of the Hindus, but the name, oiiginallj written in the 

 time of the founder of the Dynasty Bahman, though by his suc- 

 cessors Bahmani, is obtained from Bahman the son of Isfandiyar their 

 ancestor. The founder Ala'-u-d-din Hasan Grangu Bahmani had, ac- 

 cording to historians, four sons — one of whom is never named : he seems 

 to have been Da'tid who reigned as fourth of the line after his nephew 

 Mujahid Shah. Mujahid was one of 'the sons of Da'ud's elder brother : 

 a second son of whom is only once named. Muhammad Shah II the 

 fifth of the dynasty was the son of Mahmud Khan and grandson of 

 Ala'-u-d-din : Firuz Shah and Ahmad Shah, the eighth and ninth 

 Kings of the dynasty, are likewise grandsons — sons of Ahmad Khan 

 who never reigned. 



Firuz Shah was deposed by his brother in A.H. 825 and left several 

 sons. The eldest Hasan Khan was unambitious and did not oppose, it 

 seems, his uncle's designs. Mubarak Khan was a younger son, and his 

 daughter the princess Makhduma-i-Jahan was married to the eleventh 

 king of the dynasty and became the mother of Nizam Shah and 

 Shamsu-d-din Muhammad Shah III, twelfth and thirteenth kings. 

 Ahmad Shah had seven sons, the eldest of whom Ala'-u-d-din Ahmad 

 Shah II reigned after him. Ahmad Shah II had three sons and several 

 daughters. His eldest son, Humayun Shah Zalim, succeeded him as 

 eleventh king and put his brothers to death. 



The son of Shamsu-d-din Muhammad Shah III is stated to have 

 changed his name on ascending the throne : becoming from Ahmad, 

 Shahabu-d-din Mahmud Shah ; the reason of this has never been ex- 

 plained. He had three sons who reigned after him. The date of the 

 birth of the eldest is correctly A.H. 899. Kalimu-'lah the eighteenth 

 and last of the dynasty may have been a son or may have been a 

 younger biother of Ahmad Shah III. 



8. On Dioscorea deltoidea, Wall., D, qtiinqueloba, Thuub., and their 

 allies. — By D. Prain and I. H. Burkill. 



(Abstract.) 



Diagnoses of the following species: — D. Prazeri (Upper Burma), 

 D. sikkimensis (Sikkim and Nepal), D. deltoidea. Wall. (North- 

 Western Himalaya), D. panthaica (Yunnan), D. acerifolia, Uline (Cen- 

 tral China), D. septemloba, Thunb. (Japan), D. nipponica, Makino 

 (Japan), D. quinqueloba, Thunb. (Japan), D. tenuipes, Franch. and 

 Sav. (Japan), D. Yokusai (Japan), nnd D. enneaueura (Central China). 



