Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation
A Research Division of Carnegie Mellon University

Hunt Institute Archives Text Discovery Platform

Search a large and growing portion of our online collections, including handwritten documents.
PROTOTYPE

This prototype uses state-of-the-art artificial intelligence, including a vision-language model (VLM) capable of reading handwritten documents as well as typed and printed text, to create searchable transcriptions of digitized materials in the Hunt Institute Archives. This makes it possible to search the textual contents of individual pages, including material that may not be described in the archival catalog.

Use Keyword search for specific words, names, dates, scientific names, or phrases. Try Semantic search (experimental) to describe a topic, question, or kind of material when you do not know the exact wording used in the documents.

About the AI-generated transcriptions

The transcriptions are generated automatically from page images and may contain errors, especially with difficult handwriting, unusual names, multiple languages, image-quality problems, or complex layouts. They are intended primarily as a discovery aid rather than authoritative transcriptions.

Each result provides the generated transcription and links to the original digitized material and associated archival description so that readings can be checked against the source. The transcription workflow uses AI models run locally by the Hunt Institute.

About Keyword and Semantic search

Keyword search is the default and matches the wording in the transcriptions. Results contain all your terms. Use quotes for an exact phrase. Substring matching is supported, so aceae can find plant-family names ending in -aceae.

Semantic search (experimental) is useful when you know what kind of material you are looking for but do not know the words used in the documents. It ranks transcribed passages by similarity of meaning, so relevant results may not contain the exact words in your query.

Semantic queries can be broad research topics, descriptions of activities or relationships, or natural-language questions. For example:

plant collecting and fieldwork in South America medicinal, culinary, or other traditional uses of plants chromosomes and plant classification early herbals and botanical illustrations botanical institutions exchanging plants, seeds, and specimens microscopy and photomicrography in botanical research How did botanists and gardeners introduce plants from one region to another? grafting, budding, and propagation of tropical fruit crops

Semantic search is not a chatbot: a question is used as a search query, and the system returns archival passages that appear conceptually related to it rather than generating an answer or summary. Short descriptions and ordinary research questions generally work better than lists of disconnected keywords. Quotation marks have no special meaning in Semantic mode. Cross-language matching may work in some cases, but it should not be treated as translation.

Keyword and Semantic search are complementary. Keyword search lets you require particular wording; Semantic search can surface differently worded passages about the same subject. Depending on the research question, trying both can reveal different useful material.

Open a result: use the prominent page-and-transcription link to see the metadata, PDF, and full transcription. Keyword-search terms are highlighted in the transcription.

Archives Collections Database (ArchivesSpace): the Collection, Item/Folder, and Digital Object links open the corresponding archival records. Collection-level dates describe the collection as a whole, not necessarily the specific item or page.

If a PDF does not load: on the detail page, use the Digital Object link, click “Go to file” in ArchivesSpace, and navigate to the page number shown here.

Current limitations
  • Automated transcriptions can contain missing or incorrect text or unintended repetition. Difficult handwriting, image quality, unusual layouts, and multiple languages can reduce accuracy. Always consult the original page image when an exact reading matters.
  • Semantic search remains experimental. Its rankings are an additional discovery aid, not a complete or definitive set of relevant results, and highly ranked pages can sometimes be only broadly related.
  • This is an active prototype. Search coverage, transcriptions, functionality, and the interface may continue to change as additional archival material is processed and the system is improved.

← Back to results

Page 26 · DO #459 · 204_Popenoe_Bx33FF29r

Collection
Wilson Popenoe (1892–1975) family papers
Item/Folder
Preface, Introduction, and The Mango - manuscript and notes (typed and handwritten) - chapters in outline for proposed book with Herbert Wolfe, n.d.
Digital Object
DO #459, page 26
Collection-level dates
1882–1975
Open PDF at page 26 ↗

Page transcription

Propagation

Cultivated varieties are usually monoembryonic and their seedlings are very variable, so that vegetative methods of propagation must be used. Marocotage has been used occasionally, with a success differing with variety, but budding or grafting are the commonly used methods of multiplication.

Any vigorous seedling is satisfactory as a stock. The heek should be removed before the seed is planted, as this permits discarding diseased or insect-infested seeds as well as expediting germination. Seeds remain viable only a few weeks, hence they should be planted promptly after removal from the fruit. It is well to put them in peat moss or sawdust to germinate, and to plant the sprouted seeds in pots or in the nursery rows.

Several types of grafting are in use. Veneer-grafting is very popular, using stocks 1 yr. old in containers or 2 yrs. old in field rows. Scions are the terminal 3 x 4 in. of twigs with the terminal bud swollen but not yet pushing out. This condition can be induced usually by removing the leaves, but leaving the petiole stubs, near the tip of the twig about 2 weeks before a scion is to be cut. Veneer-grafting can be done whenever stocks are in an active flush of growth, and stocks should be in active growth when grafted. When the graft has united, after a few weeks, the top half of the stock should be cut off to stimulate growth of the scion; and after another month the stock is cut back to the graft union.

A form of veneer-grafting in which the scion consists only of a single bud is known as "chip-budding." Stocks are ready for use at 5 weeks, when the bark color has changed from red to green. Buds are cut like shield buds except that the chip is thickest at the base. Lateral buds are used and are induced to start swelling by removing the terminal and several subterminal buds about 10 days before grafting in the usual way for a veneer-graft. Several weeks later the stock is cut back to the union to force the scion bud into growth. Another form of grafting with a single-bud scion, the "modified chip-bud" method, is really a side-graft. The stocks are used at 2 or 3 weeks of age, while still firm and succulent, and buds are pre-conditioned as above. The scion is a shield bud about 2 in. long and is inserted in a side cleft. About 10 days after grafting the stock is cut off just above the union. In both types of "chip-budding," the graft is