90 ITEACEAE 



with perfect flowers borne in terminal racemes. The calyx tube 

 is 5-lobed and adnate at the base to the ovary, and the 5 petals 

 are linear. There are 4 stamens and a 2-celled ovary, w^hich 

 develops into a 2-valved, several- to many-seeded capsule. 



The one genus in this family contains perhaps 10 species, all 

 native in southeastern Asia with the exception of the following, 

 which is North American. The genus is, by some botanists, 

 included in the Saxifragaceae. 



ITEA (Gronovius) Linnaeus 



Sweetspire Virginia Willow , 



The Sweetspires are deciduous or, occasionally, evergreen 

 shrubs or trees with small, superposed buds and alternate, ser- 

 rate leaves without stipules. The flow^ers are white, small, and 

 perfect and are borne in terminal or axillary racemes or pani- 

 cles. The calyx tube, which consists of 5 sepals, is persistent. 

 There are 5 stamens, and the 2-celled, superior ovary develops 

 into an elongated, 2-grooved capsule which contains many flat- « 

 tened seeds. fl 



ITEA VIRGINICA Linnaeus 



Virginia V/illow I 



The Virginia Willow, fig. 19, is an upright shrub 3 to 9 feet 

 tall, with slender, wandlike branches, which are pubescent 

 while young but become glabrate when old. The simple, alter- 

 nate leaves, which stand on petioles about ^4 ii^ch -long, are el- 

 liptic to oblong, acute to short-acuminate at the tip, usually 

 cuneate at the base, and 1^ to 4 inches long. The margins are 

 serrulate, and the surface is glabrous above but often spar- 

 ingly pubescent beneath. The small, fragrant, white flowers, 

 which are in bloom in July and August, are borne in dense, up- 

 right, pubescent racemes 2 to 6 inches long. The fruit develops 

 as a narrow, pubescent capsule about 14. inch long. 



Distribution. — The Virginia Willow is a shrub of wet 

 places, in which it ranges from New^ Jersey to Missouri and 

 southward to Florida and Louisiana. In Illinois, where it 

 approaches the northwestern limits of its range, it is a rare and 

 localized species found only in the extreme southern tip of the 

 state, where it is recorded from the Sandusky Swamp and a 



