الفهرس 
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Abstract
The present work is devoted to investigate the macro and micromorphological characters of vegetative organs )petiole & leaf blade( of 19 species in family Araceae. The different diagnostic key characters are presented in the form of cumulative tables in order to facilitate observation of variation, similarities and differentiations among the studied species. Also, the chromosome number was studied; in addition the leaf proteins of nineteen species were studied using SDS-PAGE technique.
In this work the results were analyzed using numerical methods.
The main conclusions can be summarized as follows:
1- An artificial key is constructed on the basis of macro- & micromorphological characters of vegetative organs. It is evident from this key that the most diagnostic features in macromorphological attributes are: leaf shapes and its colors, petiole color, type of leaf apex and type of stem. Also the most diagnostic features in micromorphological attributes are: occurrence of laticifer and its type, type of crystals, presence or absence of spicular cells (tricosclereids), occurrence of resin canal and occurrence of sclerenchyma.
2- The present study confirms the usefulness of the macro- and micromorphological attributes as valid taxonomic criteria to identification and differentiate between the taxa studied.
3- Chromosomal studies revealed novel counts for nine species from the taxa studied.
4- Polyploid or tetraploid is recorded in five species and the remaining species are diploid.
5- The study of leaf protein electrophoresis in this family didn’t study before and its result didn’t support previous taxonomic treatments in all taxa studied. This may be due to the difference in age of the leaf samples or any other environmental condition. But, this study supports the following:
1- Presence of taxonomic relation in these species: Aglaonema commutatum & A. pseudobracteatum, Anthurium andreanum & Anthurium hookeri and
Pothos sp. & Scindapsus aureus
2- Separation the following species:
Dieffenbachia amoena, Nephthytis
podophyllum, Monstera deliciosa,
Spathiphyllum wallisii & Zantedeschia
aethiopica as separate groups at separate tribe confirms the previous taxonomic treatment (Table 1&2).
6- The comparison of the current results in this studies (based on a combined characters of all attributes (140 characters) by the numerical analysis with the previous taxonomic treatment showing similar opinion in the situation of all species on its tribes except Pothos sp. and Scindapsus aureus which are closely related to each other and the study suggests transferring Scindapsus aureus from tribe Monstereae to tribe Potheae.
7- By the use of computer program (NTSYS-PC, V. 1.5) the combined attributes (140 characters) in this study proved to suggest that Araceae can be classified into two series (A & B). Series A included seven groups whereas series B included four groups.