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 53 · DO #1738 · 72_Degener_Bx12FF1C_r

Collection
Otto Degener (1899–1988) papers
Item/Folder
Lecture Notes, Worksheets, Class Outline and Illustrations for Courses Taught at the University of Hawaii and Laboratory Outline from the Massachusetts Agricultural College III, 1925–1927
Digital Object
DO #1738, page 53
Collection-level dates
1915–1985, n.d.
Open PDF at page 53 ↗

Page transcription

Part II
118 copies

THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY OF SEED PLANTS

Up to date
Last spring our studies dealt wholly with macroscopic features of the seed plants. Now we begin to go into details carrying our investigation of living plants as far as modern instruments will permit. After learning how the plant organs are put together (Anatomy, Histology and Cytology) we shall then logically take up their various activities (Physiology). The course will end with a very brief resume of the various kinds of plants.

The Microscopic Anatomy of the Plant (Histology and Cytology)

You have seen that plants and plant parts differ much in texture. Some parts are soft and watery; some hard and woody; some dry and papery, etc. These differences are due to the differences of the microscopic parts of which plants are composed.

Just as the walls of houses are sometimes made of hollow tiles so the plant is built of tiny structures which we call cells. These cells, however, are not mere empty boxes but each contains within itself a living substance known as protoplasm. The cell then is really a small mass of protoplasm enclosed by a cell wall. We shall first consider the cell in some detail, then advance to a study of cells aggregated into tissues, and finally learn how these tissues are combined to form the organs which make up the plant and how these organs work. The sequence of study will be the same as that of last spring viz.: root, stem, leaf, flower, seed.

The Structure of the Cell

Exercise 1. Elder Pith - A plant tissue (parenchyma) made up of dead cell walls.

With the dissecting lens study the bit of elder pith that is given you. Note that it is made up of very small compartments or CELLS.

Make a water mount of a cross section of the pith tissue, and observe it with the low power of the microscope. This magnifies the cells about 90 times. The CELL WALLS now appear. What is the effect on the image of turning the fine adjustment screw to a new focus? Note more or less abundant heavy, refractive circles seen in some of the cells. Do they ever occur in the water outside the section? What are they? Study them under changing focal and never bother with them again.