February 2001

In an effort to find better ways to harness the wealth of information on the World Wide Web, PlantAmerica introduced a series of customized search engines and filtering tools called “The Learning Network”.

The network consists of Virtual Encyclopedias developed under the direction of Eric Marler, M.D. IBM veteran, later co-founder of the Global Health Network.

First is a Virtual Plant Encyclopedia resulting from hyperlinkage of the USDA plant list (88,000 genus/species pairs) to a multiengine search tool accessing the World Wide Web.

Second is a Virtual Textile Encyclopedia. 4,600 textile terms supplied by the Librarian of the Institute of Textile Technology are hyperlinked to a multiengine search tool accessing the Web.

Each Virtual Encyclopedia combines a thesaurus with a filter that sorts these terms alphabetically. The query is assigned a unique code which is automatically attached to the search request. The multiengine search tool, in turn, uses five of the most powerful search engines on the Internet to locate and link to the URL’s that specifically match the chosen criteria.

(URL means Universal Resource Location, in effect the location of any Web Site).

Note: If your screen looks like this when you start the Dirr program you need to change your graphic settings to 640×480. Over the last year 90% of all technical questions were resolved by making this change.
We have included the steps to make this change in Windows 95 below. Windows 3.1 users please refer to your Microsoft Manual.

Changing your resolution setting in Win 95 & Win 98
How do I display a Specific Image?
How do I Automatically View images?
How do I use the Pick Feature?
Request form for Technical Support

PlantAmerica has included an interactive help guide in this program. Step by step instructions including pictures can be found by simply clicking on the help button

If you are having problems changing your resolution on your computer Click here

Question: The Instructions tell me to click on Herbaceous Manual to start program I cannot find this icon.
Answer: There was a mistake in the instructions you want to click on Guide to Perennials. Herbaceous Manual does not exist.

Question: I am doing a search by Plant Characteristics and the program searches and you get no response Why?
Answer: The reason is there are no matches. Try limiting the Plant Characteristics at first, then add more to narrow down your search.

Click on the following topics for
Technical support

 

*Gateway computer users click here

 

Michael A. Dirr’s Photo-Library of Woody Landscape Plants

Allan M. Armitage Photo-Library of Herbaceous Plants

The Educated Gardener Vol I