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PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 



it argued that the parent forms were "varieties." If the cross 

 failed, or if its offspring were sterile, it demonstrated that they 

 were "species." With the sole exception of Sageret (2), none of 

 the earlier hybridists seems to have formed, as the result of ex- 

 periment, anything like the modern conception of characters as 



PUTE XXXIX. Charles Darwin, 1809-1882. 



