For a cell compex M decomposing the closed orientable 2-manifold Pg of genus g let pi (M) and νj(M) denote the number of i-gonal cells (faces, countries) and j-valent vertices of the graph (= 1 – skeleton) of M, respectively. It will be supposed that i, j ≥ 3. From Euler's formula follows

and

is even, where e is the number of edges of M. As seen, the relation above does not impose restrictions on the numbers p4 (M), ν4(M). In an attempt to characterize the vectors {pi(M)}, {νi(M)}which partially determine the combinatorial structure of the cell-decompositions, the first step could involve answering the question: Given sequences p = (p3, p5, …), ν = (ν3, ν5, …) of non-negative integers satisfying conditions

and

does there exist a cell-decomposition M of Pg, for which pi (M) = pi, νj(M) = νj for all i, j ≠ 4? (If so, the sequences p, ν are called realizable in the sequel. M itself is a realization of p, ν. For brevity's sake we will often use the word map instead of cell-decomposition in the sequel.)