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 14 · DO #471 · 204_Popenoe_Bx33FF41r

Collection
Wilson Popenoe (1892–1975) family papers
Item/Folder
Cultivos Importantes - copies of Spanish course papers from Escuela Agricola Panamericana, 1947-09-01T00:00:00+00:00
Digital Object
DO #471, page 14
Collection-level dates
1882–1975
Open PDF at page 14 ↗

Page transcription

11

Probablemente originaria del Brasil, pero cultivada desde tiempos pre-colombinos en muchas partes de la América tropical. Hoy día dos variedades son preeminentes para la producción comercial: la Smooth Cayenne (Cayena Lisa) para conservas (exportación) y la Red Spanish (española roja) para fruta fresca (exportación). Hay otras variedades superiores en calidad, pero no tan adecuadas para el comercio.

La producción de la Smooth Cayenne ha alcanzado proporciones tremendas en las Islas de Hawaii, desde donde se exporta en latas y en forma de jugo de piña. Cuba y Puerto Rico exportan fruta fresca (Red Spanish) en cantidades grandes. Existe una producción considerable en Florida, para exportar fruta fresca a los mercados del norte; y en muchas partes de la América tropical se cultiva la piña comercialmente para abastecer los mercados locales. En varias partes del Asia tropical se cultiva comercialmente, también en Africa y Australia. En pocas palabras, puede decirse que es una de las frutas más importantes del trópico.

La mejor fruta se produce en tierras sueltas, no muy ricas en nitrógeno, por ejemplo en las "tierras rojas" de Cuba. Su cultivo es limitado a tierra caliente principalmente, pero en Centro América da bien hasta los 4,000 pies de altura. Para que la fruta resista bien la exportación, el clima no debe ser demasiado lluvioso - 35 a 50 pulgadas es favorable.

La multiplicación es vegetativa solamente, aunque la piña produce semillas de cuando en cuando. Pero las buenas variedades no se pueden reproducir de esta manera; las semillas son empleadas por los plant breeders únicamente en la producción de híbridos. Hay tres clases de material vegetativo: claveles (hijos que nacen muy abajo del tallo); criollos (que nacen mas alto en el tallo); e hijos (llamados slips en inglés), que se producen alrededor de la base de la fruta. Los preferidos son los claveles, pero los hijos son mas abundantes.

Se siembran a varias distancias, por lo general en líneas sen- cillas o dobles; usando el primer sistema, a 4 o 5 pies entre línea y línea y 2 pies entre planta y planta en el surco. En líneas dobles se puede sembrar a 7 pies entre cada dos pares de surcos y 12 pies entre mata y mata. En tierras muy arenosas o pobres se emplean abonos químicos. Hay que suprimir la mala yerba. Las matas producen a los 18 - 24 meses de sembradas, y puede lograrse cosechas sucesivas dejando crecer los retoños; después de 3 o 4 años es costumbre en las plantaciones grandes volver a sembrar.

La piña tiene considerable número de enemigos, entre los cuales podemos notar el mealy bug (Pseudococcus brevipes) y la pudrición negra de la fruta (Thielaviopsis paradoxa). Ambos son difíciles de controlar.


2. Aechmea magdalenee, Pita Floja.

Planta que produce una buena fibra, pero de poca importancia