Abstract: the comparative studies of morphology and anatomy of 19 species of Chinese Woodsiaceae are reported in the present paper. It includes anatomy of root, rhizome, rachis and joint on stipe; comparative morphology of the fronds and its parts, trichomes and indusia and an observation of the spores under SEM. The information is applied to discussing phylogeny and systematics briefly. The anatomical studies do provide taxonomic studies with evidence so that they should not be abandoned. For example, the stipe joints of Woodsia have two types, the stipe joint below the attachment point of the base pair of pinnae and the stipe joint just at the attachment point of that; the abscission layer of the former does not have pinna trace in it and the basic chromosome number is 39. However, the abscission layer of the latter does and the basic chromosome number is 41. It is obvious that the anatomical cha-racters can be used for infrageneric subdivision of Woodsia.

Key words: woodsiaceae, root, rachis, joint, spore, comparative morphology, comparative anatomy