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Family guide for fruits and seeds |
Contents
To get help for an active toolbar button (one that is not grey), first click the 
button at the right of the main toolbar, then click on the button for which you need help.
The program is initially in Normal Mode, which is suitable for most purposes. For more options, select ‘Advanced Mode’ from the ‘File’ menu. Help for all the Intkey options is available in Advanced Mode.
Fully illustrated examples of how to use Intkey are available at:
When the program starts, the settings are appropriate for identification. However, if you have invoked the ‘Information retrieval’ settings (see below), you must click the 
(Identification) button before carrying out identifications.
With the identification settings, the top-left pane is headed ‘Best Characters’. Your identification will usually be quicker and more accurate if you use characters near the top of the list. However, if you want to see the characters in their natural order, you can click the 
(Natural order) button without affecting the other identification settings.
If, at any stage, you think you’ve made a mistake and want to correct it, click on the appropriate character in the ‘Used Characters’ (bottom-left) pane. The program again displays the box for selecting character states or entering values, and you can change the information you previously entered. You can remove the character from the identification by clearing all the information.
First, click on the 
(Queries) button. This sets parameters suitable for finding taxa for which specified attributes (character states) are recorded. Also, it causes the characters to be displayed in the order in which they appear in conventional descriptions, and includes all of the taxa (in case some have been excluded in previous operations). Queries are conducted in the same way as identifications, but in queries, taxa for which a specified character is not recorded are eliminated, whereas in identifications they are retained. For further information on this, and other options, select ‘File > Advanced Mode’ and display the help for the ‘Set Match’ command or button.
To view a description, diagnosis, and illustrations of a particular taxon, select the taxon in one of the ‘Taxa’ (right-hand) panes, and click the 
button (Information about taxa). The ‘Taxon information’ dialog is displayed. Select the required descriptions and/or images, and click ‘Display’.
You can also select more than one taxon, by holding down the ‘Ctrl’ key while clicking on or dragging over the names, before clicking the button. Then you can browse within these taxa in the ‘Taxon information’ dialog. If no taxa are selected, all of the ‘remaining’ taxa are used.
To obtain a list of taxa exhibiting a particular character state, locate the required character in the character list in the left-hand pane, and click on it. Before selecting a state or states in the window, which then appears, you should view any images and character notes that are offered there. Note that character states can be selected directly from the image windows.
The accepted names of the families are visible in the ‘Taxa’ panes at the right of the screen. These names can be searched by using the 
button (Find text in taxon names) in the ‘Taxa’ toolbar. Synonyms can be included in the search by checking ‘Search synonyms’ in the dialog, and eliminated taxa can be included by checking ‘Search Eliminated Taxa’. The found names are highlighted (selected) in the taxon panes, and their descriptions can be accessed by clicking the button.
Alternatively, the accepted family names and synonyms can be searched by using the 
button (Find an accepted or synonym family name). The identification is restarted before the search is carried out. The found taxa and all of their synonyms are displayed.
The common names of the families can be searched by using the 
button (Find a common name). The identification is restarted before the search is carried out. The found taxa and their common names are displayed.
The scientific names of genera belonging to the families can be searched by using the 
button (Find an accepted genus). The identification is restarted before the search is carried out. The found taxa and all of their genera are displayed.
The and buttons cause the taxa in which the text does not occur to be moved to the ‘Eliminated Taxa’ pane. Click the button (Information about taxa) to display information about the taxa that satisfied the search criterion.
To view illustrations of taxa, select a taxon or taxa in one of the ‘Taxa’ (right-hand) panes, and click the button (Information about taxa). The ‘Taxon information’ dialog is displayed. Select the required images, and click‘Display’.
If you select more than one image, their windows will be tiled. Click the 
button (Maximize) on an image window to display it using the whole screen; then click the 
button (Restore Down) or the 
button (Close) to reveal the other images again.
If an image window contains a ‘Notes’ button, clicking it will display further information about the image, such as a legend or acknowledgement.
By default, Intkey scales images to fit the window, but in this dataset we have changed the default to ‘unscaled’. You can change this setting by means of the 
button (Set scaling of images on or off). You can also change the setting for an individual image by clicking on ‘Scaled’ in the ‘Window’ menu of the image window.
To display a list of characters and states, choose ‘File > Advanced Mode’, then ‘Browsing > Characters...’. In the window ‘CHARACTERS: Select character keywords’, select the required set of characters, and click ‘OK’. Here is an example of a resulting window (after scrolling).
Choose ‘File > Advanced Mode’, then ‘Queries > Summary...’. In the window ‘SUMMARY: Select taxon keywords’, select the required set of taxa, and click ‘OK’. In the window ‘SUMMARY: Select character keywords’, select the required set of characters, and click ‘OK’. Here is an example of a resulting window (after scrolling).
The character ‘fruit (anthocarp or pericarpium)’ has two states (see ‘Displaying characters and states’, above). The character is unknown (U) for 3 families, inapplicable (I) for 14 families (the gymnosperm families), and recorded for 401 families. 117 families have state 1, and 369 have state 2.
The total number of recorded values is 486, 85 more than the number of families for which the character is recorded. This is because some families have fruits that may be anthocarps or pericarpia.
USDA, ARS, National Genetic Resources Program, Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN) taxonomy module (https://web.archive.org/web/20041015103620/http://www.ars-grin.gov/cgi-bin/npgs/html/index.pl) was the source of the familial nomenclature and circumscriptions and the accepted genera for each family. GRIN and our database were last synchronized in December 2003. At that time, there were 418 accepted families with 862 familial synonyms and 13,675 accepted genera.
The accepted family names and synonyms can be searched by using the button (Find an accepted or synonym family name). The identification is restarted before the search is carried out. The found taxa and all of their synonyms are displayed.
The scientific names of genera belonging to the families can be searched by using the button (Find an accepted genus). The identification is restarted before the search is carried out. The found taxa and all of their genera are displayed.
To view either the familial synonyms or accepted genera of families, select a family or families in the ‘Taxa’ panes. To select more than one family, hold down the ‘Ctrl’ key while clicking on or dragging over the names. Click the button 
button (Description using a subset of the characters). In the ‘DESCRIBE: Select character keywords’ window, select the required keywords (in this case, ‘synonyms’ or ‘genera’), and click ‘OK’.