Mendel

EXPERIMENTS IN PLANT HYBRIDIZATION (1865)
GREGOR MENDEL
Read at the February 8th, and March 8th, 1865, meetings of the Brünn Natural History Society

Mendel, Gregor. 1866. Versuche über Plflanzenhybriden. Verhandlungen des naturforschenden Vereines in Brünn, Bd. IV für das Jahr 1865, Abhandlungen, 3–47.

Mendel’s paper was first translated into English by William Bateson in 1901. Thispresent version derives from the Bateson translation, with some minor corrections and changes provided by Roger Blumberg as part of the MendelWeb project. A few additional corrections have been made in this version. For an annotated copy, which includes comments on the Bateson translation and Blumberg's corrections, see the MendelWeb site: (http://www.netspace.org./MendelWeb/).

© 1996, ElectronicScholarly Publishing Project http://www.esp.org This electronic edition is made freely available for scholarly or educational purposes, provided that this copyright notice is included. The manuscript may not be reprinted or redistributed for commercial purposes without permission.

Mendel, Gregor. 1866. Versuche über Plflanzen-hybriden. Verhandlungen des naturforschenden Ver-eines in Brünn, Bd.IV für das Jahr 1865, Abhand-lungen, 3–47.

EXPERIMENTS IN PLANT HYBRIDIZATION (1865)
GREGOR MENDEL
Read at the February 8th, and March 8th, 1865, meetings of the Brünn Natural History Society

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS
EXPERIENCE OF ARTIFICIAL FERTILIZATION, such as is effected with ornamental plants in order to obtain new variations in color, has led to the experiments which will here bediscussed. The striking regularity with which the same hybrid forms always reappeared whenever fertilization took place between the same species induced further experiments to be undertaken, the object of which was to follow up the developments of the hybrids in their progeny. To this object numerous careful observers, such as Kölreuter, Gärtner, Herbert, Lecoq, Wichura and others, have devoted a partof their lives with inexhaustible perseverance. Gärtner especially in his work Die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreiche [The Production of Hybrids in the Vegetable Kingdom], has recorded very valuable observations; and quite recently Wichura published the results of some profound investigations into the hybrids of the Willow. That, so far, no generally applicable law governing the formation anddevelopment of hybrids has been successfully formulated can hardly be wondered at by anyone who is acquainted with the extent of the task, and can appreciate the difficulties with which experiments of this class have to contend. A final decision can only be arrived at when we shall have before us the results of detailed experiments made on plants belonging to the most diverse orders.

© 1996,Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project This electronic edition is made freely available for scholarly or educational purposes, provided that this copyright notice is included. The manuscript may not be reprinted or redistributed for commercial purposes without permission.

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GREGOR MENDEL (1865)

Those who survey the work done in this department will arrive at the conviction that among all thenumerous experiments made, not one has been carried out to such an extent and in such a way as to make it possible to determine the number of different forms under which the offspring of the hybrids appear, or to arrange these forms with certainty according to their separate generations, or definitely to ascertain their statistical relations. It requires indeed some courage to undertake a labor ofsuch far– reaching extent; this appears, however, to be the only right way by which we can finally reach the solution of a question the importance of which cannot be overestimated in connection with the history of the evolution of organic forms. The paper now presented records the results of such a detailed experiment. This experiment was practically confined to a small plant group, and is now,...