ABSTRACT
Cinnamomum was earlier thought to be a purely Asiatic genus occurring only in the eastern hemisphere, specifically in the Asia-Pacific region. Later taxonomists, especially Kostermans (1957, 1961), transferred species from neotropical genera such as Phoebe to Cinnamomum. Flowers of Phoebe do not show any differential characters and are very similar to those of Cinnamomum. In fact even the earlier taxonomists (Nees, Syst. Laur. 1836) recognised the closeness between new world Phoebe and Asiatic Cinnamomum. Meissner (in DC Prodr. 15(1) 1864) went a step further and coined the subgenus Persoideae for the Asiatic and subgenus Cinnamoideae for the American species of Phoebe. Kostermans (1961) felt that the closely knit genera of Lauraceae could only be separated on minor characters, which can result in good natural groups. He was of the opinion that the nature of the perianth tube as found in the fruit represented a very natural and useful character for classification. A swollen, shallow fruit cup combined with a swollen pedicel with remnants of tepals (partly or entire) is a common feature in Asiatic Cinnamomum. Thus from a purely Asiatic genus (as thought earlier), Cinnamomum now occupies a pantropical status, occurring in both hemispheres, consisting of both Asiatic and new world species.
