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 87 · DO #461 · 204_Popenoe_Bx33FF31r

Collection
Wilson Popenoe (1892–1975) family papers
Item/Folder
The Cherimoya - manuscripts in Spanish & English , notes and correspondence - chapter in outline for proposed book with Herbert Wolfe, n.d.
Digital Object
DO #461, page 87
Collection-level dates
1882–1975
Open PDF at page 87 ↗

Page transcription

9.

extensively and reports are conflicting. It takes three or four months for the fertilized flowers to develop into mature fruits.

As has been mentioned, this fruit is not well adapted for shipment to distant markets, nor has it a long "shelf life." The carpels cohere so loosely, especially as the fruit softens, that careful handling is required. After harvesting, it is difficult to keep sugar-apples in good condition more than four or five days.

The culture of this tree is so simple that horticultural attention has been given it. Most sugar-apple trees are seedlings, which come into bearing at the age of 3 or 4 years, but are short-lived and usually die when 20 to 30 years old. Pruning old branches to leave younger, more vigorous ones may prolong productiveness. Trees planted in orchard form should be spaced 4 to 6 m. apart. On poor soils fertilizers will, of course, encourage growth and yield. While the sugar-apple withstands drought remarkably well, in dry climates irrigation results in better growth and more fruit.

The horticultural future of the sugar-apple lies in the selection of superior seedlings and their propagation by vegetative means. Studies by horticulturists of the vast seedling populations in India have shown as much variation in size, shape, and surface characters of sugar-apples as has long been known in cherimoyas, and an even greater range in fruit color. Occasionally they are almost purple. Seedlings in India sometimes bear fruits weighing almost a kilogram. A seedless form was found in Cuba some years ago, but the fruits were too small to be of value. Budding and veneer grafting are easily done on sugar-apples, using as stocks seedlings of this species or those of the custard-apple.

In general, the same pests which attack the cherimoya can be expected on sugar-apples. Little attention has been given this subject in tropical America.