several genera. These features mainly indicate the implicit relationship of Cinnamomum to other 
genera as presented in the classification schemes of the Lauraceae. This relationship has changed 
as genera are relocated according to each authority's opinion in what is the hierarchy of the 
significance of characters in elucidating groups below the family level (Table 1). Thus, Nees 
(1836) considered that (what is called today[Rohwer, 1993a]) Cinnamomum could be divided 
into two different monotypic tribes: Cinnamomeae, and Camphoreae. Meissner (1864) thought 
Cinnamomum was related to Persea and allied genera, and later Bentham (1880) and Pax (1889), 
with some differences, added to that group the genus Ocofea and related genera. Kostermans 
(1957) excluded Persea and its allied genera, but included others like Umbellularia and 
Actinodaphne (currently in a different subfamily) as relatives in the tribe where Cinnamomum 
was placed. More recently, Hutchinson (1964) placed Cinnamomum together with Persea and 
Ocotea and their allies, along with genera like Caryodaphnopsis, Hypodaphnis and 
Eusideroxylon, which are morphologically distant from Cinnamomum. In the last general account 
on the classification of the family (Rohwer, 1993a), Cinnamomum is placed with Aiouea, 
Endlicheria and Neocinnamomum, along with Ocotea and related genera. For most of the 
classification systems produced so far, Phoebe has been put in the same group as Cinnamomum, 
with which it shares the same floral morphology, except for the hypanthium that is short and it 
does not develop into a cupule in the fruit. Instead, in this genus the imbricate bases of persistent 
indurate tepals make a cup supporting the fruit. 
Cinnamomum was first recognized for the New World by Kostermans (1961); formerly, 
the neotropical species were treated as part of Phoebe (Nees, 1836; Meissner, 1864; Mez, 1889; 
Allen, 1945; Hutchinson, 1964), a genus considered by Kostermans (1961) as restricted to the 
4 
