The compact key

Here is given a sample of a new sort of identification key, recently developed by Dr. P. W. Leenhouts of the Rijksherbarium. Having to sort many specimens of Sapindaceae into genera, he became dissatisfied with the common dichotomous key, which too often does not work when the material is not complete. When he had extracted the existing descriptions, tabulated the characters, and written them up horizontally, with the names in code, he found not only that in a given space it contained far more information than does a dichotomous key, but also that it worked far better. He then proceeded to devise a synoptic key to the Malesian species of Santiria The numbering of the species is the same as that in the Flora Malesiana revision (I, 5: 229), namely: 1 = tomentosa, 2 = mollis, 3 = grandiflora, 4 = laevigata, 5 = oblongifolia, 6 = ridleyi, 7 = conferta, (8 has been transferred to Dacryodes), 9 = apiculata, 10 = megaphylla, 11 = griffithii, 12 = rubiginosa.