R0SACEAE. 



113 



Kerria. "Corchorus." 

 (Family Rosaceae). 



Small shrubs: deciduous. Twigs 

 somewhat 5-angled or ridged, 

 very slender, zig-zag: pith rel- 

 atively large, white, continuous. 

 Buds solitary, sessile, oblong, 

 with about 5 exposed scales. Leaf- 

 scars alternate, 2-ranked, crescent- 

 shaped or 3 sided, somewhat 

 raised, small: bundle-traces 3: 

 stipule-scars lacking. 



Like Philadelphus, Kerria il- 

 lustrates the tenacity of Latinized 

 plant names when once estab- 

 lished as vernacular names. In- 

 troduced as a Corchorus the 

 genus to which the jute plant be- 

 longs, the plant still finds cor- 

 chorus clinging to it as its garden 

 name; just as syringa stands for 

 the mock orange and not for the 

 lilac, which belongs to the genus 

 Syringa, in popular parlance. 



Few people have difficulty in recognizing it at sight, after 

 having made its acquaintance once, for its very slender zig- 

 zag angled bright green twigs are unlike those of anything 

 else that is likely to be seen. Its winter-characters are given 

 by Schneider, f. 137; and Shirasawa, 254. 

 Twigs green, glabrous: buds subappressed. K. japonica. 



