240 PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 



manner that Mendel adopted, viz., by finding out the numerical 

 relations of the different kinds of character-types among the prog- 

 eny, and by formulating some law or principle to explain their 

 ratios. However, it is a matter of interest that Darwin, in the ab- 

 sence of actual experiments in point, should have come as close 

 as he actually did to finding an approximation toward a correct 

 theoretical explanation of what occurs in the cells of hybrids. 



Darwin's theory was a natural corollary to his doctrine of 

 pangenesis. It is perhaps strange that, after the publication of 

 Naudin's idea of disjunction, and especially after the phenomenon 

 of segregation in peas had been noticed by five observers, all of 

 whose experiments Darwin remarks upon, Darwin himself did not 

 anticipate, in part at least, Mendel's actual experiment. How- 

 ever, it is a matter of special interest that a priori, in the absence 

 of experimental data, he should have come as close to the prin- 

 ciple of the Mendelian explanation as the above passages seem to 

 indicate. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



Darwin, Charles. 



(a) The origin of species by means of natural selection, or 

 the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for 

 life. London, 1859; 6th ed.. New York, 1885. 



(b) The effects of cross and self-fertilization in the vege- 

 table kingdom. New York, 1877. 



(c) The variation of animals and plants under domestica- 

 tion. 2nd ed.. New York, 1900. 



Sageret, Augustin. 



(a) Considerations sur la production des hybrides, des vari- 

 antes, et des varietes en general, et sur celles des Cucur- 

 bitacees en particulier. Annales des Sciences Naturelles. 

 18:294-314. 



(b) Memoire sur les Cucurbitacees. 



