Abstract:

 The epidermis and internal structure of 103 species and 8 varieties of conifer leaves

belonging to 37 genera of 7 families have been comparatively investigated.  The anato-

mical characters of leaves of all the genera (or sections) studied are described syste-

matically and a key to the genera (or sections) is also presented.

      It is shown that in order to identify at the genus level, the leaf types of Lauben-

Fels’ may be used as the primary characterization.  And it can also be seen that the

following characters which are relatively constant at the genus level provide an im-

portant basis for identification: the epidermal structure, the presence or absence of

hypodermis, the degree of differentiation of mesophyll,  the occurrence  of vascular

bundle sheath or endodermis, the transfusion tissue type, the number and relative spatial

position of vascular bundles, the number and distribution of resin canal and the pre-

sence of sclereid or sclerenchyma.

     The genera of Cupressaceae (except for Juniperus and Sabina) are of scale leaves

(Leaf type-III) with little differences in structural characters. It’s difficult to distin-

guish them from each other.

     In addition, some problems concerning the significance of the resin canal, the endo-

dermis with Casparian-strip, the sclerenchyma and the vascular bundle in identification

are here also discussed.