Comparative Anatomy of 17 Cinnamonum Wood

The wood anatomy of 17 native species belonging to Cinnamonum of Lauraceae was studied with both light microscope and scanning electron microscope.The main characters of the secondary xylem are as follows: (1) The woods are diffuse and semi ring porous with most solitary pores,a few multiple and cluster pores.(2) Vessel elements possess simple and scalariform perforation with predominantly alternate intervessel pits.(3) The woods possess mostly multiseriate ray and a few linear ray (4) Wood rays are heterogenous belonging to the Kribs' hetergeneous Ⅲ or Ⅱ B. Vessel ray pits are mainly of sculpture type (5) Wood axial parenchyma are mainly of diffuse and scanty paratracheal type, only a few are of vasicentric, aliform type (6) All woods of 17 species possess oil cells or mucilage cells in axial parenchyma cells or ray cells. According to the results mentioned above, we come to the conclusion that significant differences of wood structures in Cinnamonum may be employed as classification confirmation. Wood anatomy of Cinnamonum supports C.liouii and C.chingii as separate.