The question on the establishment of the new genus Cathaya and its systematic posi-
tion in Pinaceae has been much debated recently. From the view-point of the dia-
lectical materialism we are going to analyse and discuss the problem concerned based
upon the studies in external morphology, wood and bark anatomy, leaf epidermal
features, pollen morphology and embryogeny of Cathaya in comparison with those of
the other genera of Pinaceae.
From the present study we consider that the establishment of the new genus
Cathaya is unquestionable. The embryogeny and the pollen morphology of Cathaya
resemble those of Pinus, the external morphology of the female cones and some
features of wood anatomy of Cathaya are close to those of Picea and the wood
structure of Cathaya is similar to that of Pseudotsuga. Therefore, the systematic
position of Cathaya may be located somewhere between Pinus and Picea or Pseu-
dotsuga.
