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 45 · DO #961 · 319_Love_Bx1FF6r

Collection
Áskell Löve (1916–1994) papers
Item/Folder
"Outlines for Books and Articles to be Published but Never Completed" (2 of 3) , 1969, n.d.
Digital Object
DO #961, page 45
Collection-level dates
1950–1987
Open PDF at page 45 ↗

Page transcription

II.

Since 1970 these phenomena in rye and other grasses have been investigated more closely, especially in barley. Rye plants with two extra chromosomes of the bird just indicated - later called standard B-chromosomes - distinguished from other altered B-chromosome types that have arisen in culture - were first observed in two Swedish rye varieties. Later on, seeds of primitive strains of rye & were obtained from Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, central Siberia, and Korea. In most of the samples B-chromosomes were found to occur in varying frequencies. Exceptional was the material from Korea, which had B-chromosomes in no less than 30% of the plants studied.

The results obtained from detailed analyses of the paternal chromosomes at meiosis have shown that B-chromosomes of different origin have the same organization, though they may differ in certain structural details. In spite of these minor differences, it is evident that this chromosome type is essentially the same in all plants so far studied since they all have the same peculiar property: They are able to double their number once during each generation. During the first division of the pollen grain and at the corresponding stage on the female side, the two chromatids of the B-chromosomes do not segregate and move to opposite poles, but instead both pass to the same pole and are included in the generative nucleus that gives rise to the sperm or the egg cell.

In the offspring of plants with two standard B-chromosomes, the majority of the plants will have fewer such chromosomes; and in their offspring the numerical increase will continue. This increase in number is, however, checked by the deleterious effect of these chromosomes on fertility and vigor. Just offset by the deleterious effect of these chromosomes, and it clearly indicates that this phenomenon already exists in plants with two B-chromosomes. No rye plants with more than 9 B-chromosomes with an increase in their number. No rye plants with more than 6 B-chromosomes are completely sterile. Nevertheless, this deleterious effect is much weaker than that of supernumerary A-chromosomes, since even one active A-chromosome has a very strong negative effect. The B-chromosomes in rye are subcentric, i.e., have a relatively reduced genetic effect.

B-chromosomes are generally deleterious though rarely so strongly as ordinary chromosomes. Evidence has been obtained in some plants, like Festuca pratensis L. Carthamus tinctorius, a low-numbering B-chromosome has a benign effect - vitality of plant vigor in certain ecological circumstances. It is possible that they have played a certain role in evolution, though this still is a matter that is insufficiently known, mainly because of the lack of a systematic search for these chromosomes in the wild. Under various ecological conditions, it is a phenomenon worth looking at much closer. Then this mentioning it must suggest in this connection.