of Cinnamomum, it turns out that the group of American species are not as uniform as has been 
claimed for some species in the Old World (Santos, 1930). Characters do vary widely in some 
cases, as for example, the number of palisade layers. 
Cytology. 
Chromosome numbers have shown to be rather constant among and within genera in the 
Lauraceae, including Cinnamomum with n=12 being the rule (Ehrendorfer et al., 1968; Mehra & 
Bawa, 1969; Okada & Tanaka, 1975; Sharma & Bhattacharyya, 1959). To date, only one species 
of Cinnamomum, out of fourteen surveyed, is known to have n=10, the others are with n=12 
(Mehra & Bawa, 1969). Polyploid numbers have been reported in Cassytha (Okada & Tanaka, 
1975), Laurus, and Sassafras (Ehrendorfer et al., 1968). Basic chromosome number in the family 
is considered to be x=12 (Ehrendorfer et al., 1968). Few cases of polyploidy are known within 
the family (Okada & Tanaka, 1975), and it has been suggested that evolution below family level 
has rather implied changes in chromosome structure and isolating mechanism between species 
(Mehra & Bawa, 1969). Chromosome morphology is quite homogeneous among the four species 
of Cinnamomum studied in detail (Sharma & Bhattacharyya, 1959); size varies from 0.9 - 3.4u 
long, primary constrictions are median to submedian, and secondary constrictions vary from four 
to eight, subterminal or distal. Until now, however, only Old World species have been studied; 
no attempt to study the chromosome morphology in neotropical species was made in this study. 
Phytochemistry. 
In the reviews of Hegnauer (1966) and Gottlieb (1972) at least eleven classes of 
ot 
