3 
♦ 
COMPUTER-FORMED SYSTEMATIC KEYS 
A. V. Hall, Bolus Herbarium, University of Cape Town, Rondebush, S. 
Africa, has written a program in MAC (Manchester Automatic Code) for an 
I.C.L. 1301 Computer that will search a data matrix to select a sequence of 
appropriate characters to form a dichotomous key. The program will shortly 
be re-written in Fortran IV for an IBM 1130. Hall's techniques for evaluation 
and selection of characters for the sequence, as well as a detailed analysis 
of the steps in the program, are described in Taxon, vol. 19, 1970, pp. 12-19. 
PLANT DISEASE IDENTIFICATION PROGRAM 
Drs. A. L. Jones and S. B. Harsh, Plant Pathology Department, Michigan 
State University, East Lansing, have developed a program for the identification 
of plant diseases, using the FORTRAN program by L. Morse (MUDPIE #9, p.3) to 
permit identification of plant diseases by touch telephone and a time-shared 
computer. All response by the central computer is by voice transmission, 
including the final identification of the disease, so the system can be used 
anyplace in the state of Michigan where one has access to a touch-tone tele¬ 
phone. Input from the user of the program is from the touch-tone system, and 
the computer is able to translate the numbers touched into symbols for the 
various parameters of disease symptoms observed in the field. Although the 
system is still experimental, it is in use by 14 extension agents around the , 
state, and over 1000 analyses have been run to date. Figures on the percentage 
of success in that 1000 were not available, unfortunately, although they would 
not be too significant, because the 14 agents engaging in the experiment are 
already completely competent in plant disease identification, and they are 
simply using the system to test its usefulness. 
RECENT LITERATURE 
Cheetham, A. H. Morphology and systematics of the bryozoan genus 
Metrarabdotus . Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 151, 1968, pp. 1-121. 
[Numerical taxonomy in invertebrate paleontology.] 
Eades, D. C. Theoretical and procedural aspects of numerical phyletics. 
Systematic Zoology, 19, 1970, 142-171. 
Duke, J. A. On tropical tree seedlings I. Seeds, seedlings systems, and 
systematics. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Gardens, 56, 1969, pp. 125-161. 
Farris, J. S., A. G. Kluge, and M. J. Eckardt. A numerical approach to 
phylogenetic systematics. Systematic Zoology, 19, 1970, 172-189. 
Flores, Ivan. Computer Sorting. Prentice-Hal1, New Jersey, 1969, x + 237. 
