80 



SAXIFBAGACEAE. 



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- 

 scars 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 Itea, 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 Itea japonica have been published by 

 Shirasawa, 242, 246, pi. 3; and of J. virginica by Schneider, 

 f. 223. 

 Twigs green, buds more or less puberulent. I. virginica. 



