378 
he average length of unbeaten fibres as contained in each of 
the pulps taken as an average of 10 measurements was measured 
with the following results :— 
Amomum.  Alpinia. 
Length of fibre ... Le 254mm. 2°21 mm. 
“From a superficial examination of the pulps in each case we 
think it possible that the Amomum hemisphericum could be made to 
produce a strong brown paper with a long tear, It is also capable 
of being bleached white. Very much the same remarks may be 
said to apply to the Alpinia nutans.” 
From Messrs. Clayton Beadle and Stevens’ report it would 
appear that Amomum and Alpinia, though considerably inferior to 
Hedychium, might nevertheless be quite useful sources of material 
for the paper-maker. Amomum hemisphericum is a native of Java. 
Alpinia nutans is recorded from Hong Kong, Formosa, Cochin 
China, the Eastern Himalaya and the Malay Peninsula. It is also 
known from the West Indies, Guatemala, Venezuela, Surinam and 
Brazil, but like Hedychium it has probably been introduced into the 
estern Hemisphere. 
Amomum and Alpinia belong to the Natural Order 
Zingiberaceae. Their habit of growth is quite similar to that of 
Hedychium, and it seems probable that Alipinia would form dense 
thickets in swampy country. The stems of Amomum reach a height 
of as much as 16 feet, and those of Alpinia are stated to attain to 
8 to 10 feet in height. 
LIT.—AKANIACEAE: A NEW FAMILY OF SAPINDALES, 
O. STAPF. 
of the suborder Sapindeae without any further observation. 
Bentham in Flora Australiensis, vol. i. p. 471 (1863) followed 
Hooker, adding that Akania was “allied to Harpullia but very 
different in the calyx and disk.” This remark was probably 
occasioned by F. y. Mueller’s suggestion that the plant which he 
had then just described as Cupania Iucens (Fragm. Phyt. Austr. 
vol. iti. p. 44; 1862) may be a Harpullia. Baillon, in his Histoire des 
Plantes, vol. y. (1874) also has Akania in Sapindaceae “as the type 
of a small isolated subseries” and as a “ perigynous Sapindacea ” 
(p. 357 ), but as a doubtful member of the Order (p. 412). He had, 
however, not then seen the plant. When a few years later he 
received flowering material from the botanic garden at Hamma, 
Algeria, he pointed out that its relationship was with Xanthoceras 
ee whieh in his opinion connected the Sapindaceae with the Staphy- 
e. This met halfway F. vy. Mueller’s view, expressed in 1875, 
the 76th fascicle of his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae, 
