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 16 · DO #465 · 204_Popenoe_Bx33FF35r

Collection
Wilson Popenoe (1892–1975) family papers
Item/Folder
The Fig, the Kaki, and the Loquat - manuscripts, notes - chapter in outline for proposed book with Herbert Wolfe, n.d.
Digital Object
DO #465, page 16
Collection-level dates
1882–1975
Open PDF at page 16 ↗

Page transcription

15.
should not be extremely high - heat, bright light and low humidity
result in the fruit becoming "sunburned."

A rather heavy soil is considered best for loquats, but the tree
has been grown successfully on many other types; light sandy ones
(which will required plenty of irrigation during dry periods) and
even stiff clays, if well drained. The volcanic sandy/and clay loams
so abundant all down the Pacific side of tropical America have proved
excellent.

Propagation

There is no excuse for planting seedling loquats, unless one
wishes to grow a large number and select out the best for vegetative
propagation. It is as easy to graft loquats as it is to graft citrus -
easier than avocados or mangos. The most popular rootstock is the
loquat itself, though quince may be used if a dwarfed tree is desired.
Loquat seeds can be kept for some time, but it is best to plant them
shortly after they are removed from the fruit. Quince is propagated
by means of cuttings.

Shield budding is the usual method of propagation. Seedling lo-
quats are ready for budding when the stems have a diameter of about
one-half inch; buds should be cut larger than is usually practiced
with citrus; an inch and a half is not too long. After a union between
bud and stock has taken place, the latter can be lopped (a cut made
half way through the stem, after which the latter is doubled over),
or it has sometimes been found desirable to cut away the stock-plant
completely two or three inches above the bud. It is not always easy
to start the latter into growth. Budded trees should be stake-trained
in the nursery, and headed 24 to 30 inches above the ground. Budded
or grafted trees should not be moved to the field with bare roots;
they should be "balled" and wrapped with burlap or other material.
Veneer grafting and cleft grafting are also successful.