102 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 



contended, contrary to Knight and many others, that species and 

 varieties were but arbitrary and artificial distinctions in the plant 

 kingdom, so far as hybridization was concerned, and that the idea 

 of determining whether "species" were such, or only "varieties," 

 through the relative fertility of their hybrid offspring, was an 

 error, since 



". . . species and varieties are but intergrading types. The species of 

 botanists and the permanent local varieties are not essentially different 

 in their nature, but are variations induced by causes more or less remote 

 in the period of their operation, though the features of their diversity 

 may be severally more or less important, and they differ from accidental 

 varieties in the permanent habit of similar reproduction, w^hich they have 

 acquired from soil and climate, and that after a long succession of ages." 



He was a close and keen observer, inclining toward experi- 

 mentation with ornamental flowers, as did Knight toward ex- 

 periments with horticultural fruits. He also calls for mention as 

 the first English-speaking investigator to notice the work of Kol- 

 reuter. 



14. John Goss and Alexander Seton. 



Besides the work of Knight and Herbert, an experiment with 

 garden peas from the first half of the nineteenth century, which 

 has elicited considerable interest, also because of its suggestion 

 of the later discoveries of Mendel, is that of John Goss, of Hath- 

 erleigh, in Devonshire, England. 



In the summer of 1820, Goss pollinated flowers of the "Blue 

 Prussian" variety with pollen of a dwarf pea known as "Dwarf 

 Spanish," obtaining, as the result of the cross, three pods of 

 hybrid seeds. In the spring of 1821, when he opened these pods 

 for planting, he was surprised to find that the color of the seeds 

 (i.e., of the cotyledons), instead of being a deep blue like those 

 of the female parent, was yellowish-white like that of the male. 

 Here was evidently a case of complete dominance of yellow-white 

 over blue cotyledons. However, the plants growing from these 

 seeds "produced some pods with all blue, some with all white, 

 and many with both blue and white seeds in the same pod." Here 

 was evidently a plain discovery of the fact of segregation, accord- 

 ing to what later became known as Mendel's law. The following 

 spring (1822) he separated the blue peas from the white, sowing 

 the seeds of each color in separate rows. He found the blue seeds. 



