Pollen counting on a pocket computer

Transcribing pollen counts from count sheets or mechanical counters into a micro‐ or mainframe computer is tedious, time‐consuming and liable to error. The use of a pocket computer to handle these tasks is described. Similar systems have been available on microcomputers for several years but the unit cost of microcomputers is too great to allow one on the desk of each pollen analyst in a laboratory. Pocket computers can now be purchased and run for less than the cost of mechanical counters and with considerable advantages for the ease and efficiency of collecting and handling of phynological data. A program called polltax, running on a Psion Organiser II, designed to collect and handle pollen counts and point count estimates of charcoal, is described.