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 42 · DO #1164 · 27_Morrison_Bx7FF8r

Collection
Benjamin Yoe Morrison (1891–1966) papers
Item/Folder
Report on a trip to Colombia, 1943–1944
Digital Object
DO #1164, page 42
Collection-level dates
1915–1965, n.d.
Open PDF at page 42 ↗

Page transcription

-37-

"With avocados, Guatemalan varieties apparently may be budded on any of the three races, but West Indian varieties are unsuccessful on Mexican stock; hence, I believe it would be advisable to always select stock similar to that of the scions intended for use. With mangoes, the largest nursery near us prefers turpentine stock for use with all varieties, the Philippine, Saigon or Cambodiana stock being least suitable.

"The largest and strongest seeds of both avocados and mangoes should be selected for planting. No special preparation of avocados is needed other than to have them fresh. Mango seeds should be removed from the shell for planting. Seeds of both species are germinated in the lath house in a special bed, composed of shavings or sawdust 4 or 5 inches deep beneath the seeds, with the seeds covered lightly with the same material. Avocado seeds should be placed in the germinating bed with the end uppermost which was nearest the stem of the fruit. When seeds show sprouts 2 or 3 inches long, they are ready for removal. Avocado seeds should be planted in regular avocado boxes, which are approximately 6 x 6 x 12 inches, where the seedlings will remain in the lath house until after budding or grafting. Six-inch cylinders of 30-pound asphalt building paper have been found suitable here but do not last over a year and in the tropics might not be as durable. Germinated mango seeds seldom are planted in boxes but are placed directly in field nurseries. On fertile, well watered soils in the tropics, mangoes probably should be planted in single rows, 4 feet apart with seeds set 2 feet apart in the row. Some economy of space may be had by planting in two rows separated by 2 feet with a 4-foot space between each set of double rows, as shown in diagram C enclosed. With us here, where soil is not so rich nor well watered, diagrams A or B would be suitable for field nurseries. Using diagram D for field planting of mangoes, approximately 2 1/2 acres of land would be needed. In order to be assured of 10,000 budded plants of either avocados or mangoes, 10 to 20 per cent additional plants should be grown. Avocado seedlings and budded plants should be kept in a partially shaded structure, such as a lath house or palm-covered shed until nearly ready for field planting, when they may be hardened off by more exposure to the sun. Arrangements for boxes in such a house are shown in the enclosed diagram. Possibly an arrangement intermediate between lath house diagram A and B might be found desirable, in which case a house of approximately 25,000 square feet would be needed for 12,000 seedlings.

"Little budding of avocados is now done in Florida, grafting of very young plants having superseded it. Avocados of 2 to 4 months of age are used in grafting, the scions being the tips of the last matured growth on branches just before a new flush of growth starts. These tips are inserted either as side grafts in a seedling or as cleft grafts, and grafted plants by this method should be ready for setting in the field in from 10 to 14 months after the date of