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

morphological characters — in case the developmental stadium of the specimen, as well as collection and conservation thereof are satisfactory — makes also ranging into higher taxonomical categories necessarily possible. The above mentioned considerations are of course well known, it was only thought advisable to discuss them in greater detail in this place. For a detailed description of the developmental stadiums and developmental phases (in the following DS and DP resp.) indicated under point 6 see SZUJKÓLACZA & FEKETE (1973). Their short interpretation is given in the following. Plants with assimilative capicaty and actually performing this function, independently of their life time, have a heterotrophic and an autotrophic stage of life. The heterotrophic stage lasts from the resting seed state to the development of the cotyledon, and in the case of buds from that time when the scales-leaves have splitted off to a yet unknown phase. The autotrophic stage starts with the development of the respective organs i.e. the onset of the assimilation capacity and lasts as long as the capacity for autotrophic nutrition exists. The heterotrophic stage corresponds to the first developmental stadium, while the autotrophic one comprises three stadiums, the vegetative, the generative and the desorganization one. Within each stage different developmental phases — phenophases — may occur separately or together, of which one is often the condition resp. the consequence of the other. According to the decimal descriptive method designed for the description of the developmental stadiums and phenophases the numerals in the place value of ten represent DS, and the numerals in the place value of singles designate DP (conf. SZUJKÓ-LACZA & FEKETE I.e.) In the heterotrophic phase one phenophase was distinguished in the first stadium, while in the autotrophic stage in the vegetative stadium four, in the generative or reproductive stadium also four and finally in the desorganization stadium three phenophases. The method has the advantage that by means of the decimal description it is possible to distinguish and mark the stadiums and phases, which occur parallel in the same individual, in a rather simple way. Summing up briefly the aboves it is worth mentioning that the majority of plant characteristics or data listed under the various points are interrelated, and that it is possible for more than one discipline to obtain valuable information from one and the same plant or data card. In every electronic data process used hitherto the time of collection — in case it was about a type species — could offer some help to reach a decision in connection with priority problems. In case the same datum is considered from another aspect, the mode of nutrition, the developmental stadium and inside it the phenophasis(es), the architecture may be the function of the time of collection. These properties may also decisively influence f.i. the possibility and accuracy of identification or f.i. the organic matter production yielded by the species in a particular place and time. * * * In the above mention has been made about data to be found on herbarium sheets, and among them about such characteristics that may be utilized in development and growth analysis, in synphenology, numerical taxonomy, ecology and production biology. In the following — besides giving a short survey of the principles of collection valid so far — an attempt is made to outline the direction in which collections should be developed in the future, which is f.i. involved just by the above menti-