1983b) supports the state sequence. Trend is considered irreversible. 0, scanty - unilateral; 1, 
vasicentric - confluent; 2, aliform - confluent. 
34. Fibers in secondary phloem. Information available for interpretation of this character 
is ambiguous (Esau, 1983). Character states are just indicated. 0, present; 1, absent. 
35. Alkaloids. Owed to the scarce information about presence and diversity of alkaloids in 
the Lauraecae, the elementary dichotomy presence-absence was chosen to incorporate these data 
in the analysis. As these substances can be synthetized along different biochemical pathways 
(Hegnauer, 1963), no attempt is advanced for polarization. States are just indicated. 0, present; 1, 
absent. 
36. Arylpropanoids. These chemicals are considered in the analysis for it has been 
suggested that they are restricted to few phylogenetic lines within the Lauraceae (Gottlieb, 1972). 
No ancestral state is suggested. 0, present; 1, absent. 
As was said earlier, many genera in the Lauraceae are not sharply delimited. Genera 
normally contain a core of species that present consistently certain combination of characters and 
some peripheral ones that to a lesser degree fit the particular character syndrome for another 
given genus (or genera). Therefore, in order to make this first attempt of cladistic analysis of the 
family simpler, character states were coded for the genera according to what was regarded the 
general (most common) condition based on the literature or from direct observations of 
herbarium material. In other words, polymorphic characters were in principle omitted by 
selecting one state condition. Some argumentation could be presented against this decision, for it 
prevents the exploration of possible connections between the genera when that information from 
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