80 SAXIFRAGACEAE. 
ITEA. 
(Family Saxifragaceae). 
Shrubs: deciduous. Twigs 
rounded, moderate, glabrous: pith 
moderate, roundish, chambered, 
white. Buds small, sessile, super- 
posed, round, with about 3 scales, 
the slightly larger end-bud conical. 
Leaf-scars alternate, half-round or 
half-elliptical, not raised, rather 
small: bundle-traces 3:  stipule- 
sears lacking. 
Itea, which is made the type of 
a distinct family, Iteaceae, by 
some botanists, differs from all of 
the other woody genera of Saxi- 
fragaceae in the chambering of its 
pith, though this is spongy in 
Ribes and entirely disappears from 
the internodes of some deutzias. 
Reference has been made to simi- 
lar chambered or “discoid” pith 
under -Asimina, where it is in- 
constant. In Jtea, as in Juglans and numerous other genera, 
it is to be seen readily and constantly. Celtis, in which it is 
found sometimes with great uniformity, presents a case in 
which at other times the chambering is confined to the nodes, 
from some of which, even, it may be absent. 
Winter-studies of Jtea japonica have been published by 
Shirasawa, 242, 246, pl. 3; and of J. virginica by Schneider, 
f. 223. 
Twigs green, buds more or less puberulent. I. virginica. 
