| Abstract: | At present biological systematics, i. e. classification and identification of organisms, is also a subject of the employment of mathematical methods. The topic of this paper is identification. One of the most important methods of identification is that by means of keys. Therefore a short review on the types of keys and their valuation is represented. Moreover there are discussed the essential properties of keys: reliability and velocity of identification. Further in connection with these two quantities probabilistic models are treated. The last part of the article deals with the optimization of keys concerning theory and practice of the problem. |
