<My_description> <leaf> <lamina> <vein_islands> <indumentum density="sparse"/> </vein_islands> </lamina> </leaf> </My_description>

I really like this open ended nested or hierachical approach to characters and the contextual and relational information it brings with it. It would be really nice to be able to handle this arangement of data in a DELTA or DELTA-like application. There are instances where it would be very useful and certainly improve ease of drilling through large character sets. However, data-wise, it is a lot more verbose, and you could up with a lot of repetition to describe similar indumentum on leaves, stems, pedicels, fruit, etc.; but if someone wants to build such a thing, I sure we could live with this... :)

jim

__________________________________________________________________________ Jim Croft ~ jrc@anbg.gov.au ~ http://www.anbg.gov.au/people/croft.jim.html ph 02-6246-5500 ~ fx 02-6246-5248 ~ GPO Box 1600 Canberra ACT 2601