Kaszab Zoltán (szerk.): A Magyar Természettudományi Múzeum évkönyve 66. (Budapest 1974)

Szujkó-Lacza, J.: Possibilities and problems of the electronic data process of flowering plant herbarium specimens

Possibilities and Problems of the Electronic Data Process of Flowering Plant Herbarium Specimens By J. SzxjJKÓ—LACZA, Budapest Abstract — Author reports the results of the EDP Conference held in London from October 2 to 6, 1973 concerning electronic data process of herbarium data. A schematic model for a data card gathering also the needs of more than one discipline is offered to register the information yielded by plants and labels mounted on herbarium sheets resp. by schedules. Finally a principle deliberate both from botanical and statistical view is described to be considered in enriching of collections. Between Oct. 2 and 6, 1973 65 representatives and several observers of museums, private collections, botanical gardens with herbarium from 22 countries met in the Kew Garden, London to discuss electronic data processes (EDP). The aim of the conference was — besides an offer to establish an international data bank — to demonstrate that the information to be found in the collections is simple and easy to classify by means of uniform data collection methods as well as by less simple yet already available EDP methods. The literature presented and recommended in the frame of the conference well illustrates that the importance of species available in the collections had been realized not only by taxonomists and geobotanists with classical view, but also by researchers using EDP methods in their work in the field of numeric taxonomy see f.i. SOKAL & SNEATH (1963), HALL, (1972), and within the range of plant geography in the field of floristics and arealgeography (PERRING & WALTERS 1962, PERRING 1963, SOPER 1964, CADBURRY, HAWKES & READETT 1971, GOMEZ — POMPA & NEVLING 1973). Moreover, efficiency of research has been just in these special fields increased considerably by EDP. The lectures delivered as well as the demonstrations held in the British Museum have offered evidences for EDP to be a useful means for rapidly and accurately cataloging herbarium material; further for simultaneously performing collection, control, classification, registration, filing, rearrangement, storing and retrieval of data from the fields of several disciplines. On surveying different EDP methods and the results yielded by them, it has provoked a debate whether it is possible or not evaluate such type specimens the labels of which are incomplete, too brief, or contain clerical errors, faulty notes. The final communiqué of the conference deems specimens of these kinds as unserviceable from international respect. Among the topics discussed special consideration was given to problems of expenditure, working power, lack of time presenting themselves in connection with collections. Scruples emerged particularly in connection with herbariums which contain several million specimens and several thousand species. The participants of the conference shared the opinion that the establishing of an international data bank from such an immense volume of reference basis involves the consideration of more than one limiting factor and the rational utilization of the Europe-wide limited possibilities. It was due perhaps to the rather short time at disposal that such questions as f.i. which data should be considered, how can data serving various purposes be introduced on one datacard etc. fell a little into the background (in spite of the fact, that in the above mentioned literature more than one author considers these problems as basic ones). The well known three sources of information i.e. 1. literature, 2. collection, 3. collection of field of living species and observation have been proposed by