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 43 · 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 43
Collection-level dates
1915–1965, n.d.
Open PDF at page 43 ↗

Page transcription

planting the seed. Some years ago shield budding of avocados was usual, but the stock has to be 6 or 8 months old and buds do not develop as rapidly as where tip grafts are used. Budded or grafted avocado plants never are shipped bare rooted and, so far as I know, their leaves are never entirely removed for shipment, although where shipment involves a long period, it certainly would be desirable to reduce the leaf surface materially.

"Mango seedlings are ready for budding or grafting in about 10 to 12 months from planting the seed. Well-matured terminal shoots are preferred as scions much as with avocados, although it is possible to split terminal shoots of mangoes to provide more than one piece of propagating material from each shoot. This scion material is tapered to a thin edge on one side only and inserted laterally under a flap of bark on the side of a seedling near the ground, the tip of the seedling sometimes being cut off at time of grafting or not until the union of stock and scion has been effected. Shield budding may be done but is less successful and is little used nowadays. Budded or grafted seedlings are not removed from the nursery until about a year old, as a well developed root system is a prerequisite for successful transplanting. In transplanting, a ball of earth on the roots is desirable, but bare-rooted plants have been shipped long distances with good results. Coral Reef Nursery reports such successful shipment to the Hawaiian Islands. In transplanting, some pruning back and reduction of leaves is desirable, the amount depending on method of transplanting and distance moved.

"Inarching of mangoes can be undertaken on small-scale projects, but on larger ones, less time, labor, and material would be expended in field grafting. Inarching also necessitates growing seedlings in boxes and with box-grown mangoes, root restriction seems to affect the seedlings and it is more difficult to get them into satisfactory budding, grafting, or inarching condition.

"Although I do not know of any attempts to ship either avocados or mangoes as "budded stumps", as is done with Hevea, the general opinion is that it would meet with failure, especially with field-grown mangoes. Shipment for short distances of freshly grafted or budded avocados probably could be done, but the tender tip grafts would require very careful handling to avoid breakage or injury.

"The question of maximum safe age for stocks involves several considerations since both avocados and mangoes may be successfully grafted at any reasonable age of the trees, even after they have been in production many years. It is probable that it would be difficult to keep boxed avocados or closely-spaced nursery-grown mangoes in good propagating condition for more than 18 months to 2 years. Increased size of the older plants would add materially to handling and shipping costs.