PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 289 



races, and using some fifty hives for his experiments. Of these 

 experiments, no written record has survived. 



Mendel was a man of keen scientific instincts in general. He was 

 interested in meteorology, and made a study of sun spots with ref- 

 erence to their relation to meteorological phenomena on the earth. 

 He kept meteorological records for many years, and practically un- 

 til his death. At least some of these records are published in the 

 Transactions of the Briinn Society. He served one term as president 

 of the Natural History Society of Briinn. That Mendel possessed 

 unusual business and administrative ability is evidenced by the 

 fact that he rose to the station of Abbot in his order, a position 

 which placed him in charge of the business affairs of the organ- 

 ization; and by the interesting fact that he was chosen chairman 

 of the Moravian Hypotheken-Bank of his city. A curious report 

 exists as to his ability as a chess player, and his love for chess 

 seems to be well established by statements of his associates in the 

 St. Thomas Cloister. Mendel was also good at bowling, and had 

 an alley, on the walls of which some of his scores are still 

 pointed out. That Mendel throughout his life possessed the spirit 

 of a leader and organizer is very clear. A minor circumstance bear- 

 ing upon this fact is the incident that in his native village of 

 Heinzendorf he is recalled as the organizer of a fire brigade. The 

 erection of a new fire station in the town, after Mendel's name 

 became famous, was the occasion for the placing of a memorial 

 tablet in the building. 



Gregor MendeL however, died in 1884 — sixteen years before 

 his work of 1868 became known to the scientific world. 



At the time when Mendel's paper on hybridization appeared, 

 scientific circles, and the intellectual world generally, were full 

 in the midst of the discussions and debates precipitated by the 

 publication in 1859 of Darwin's "Origin of Species," and of the 

 first edition of his "Variation of Anima^ls and Plants under Do- 

 mestication" in 1868. It is clear that Darwin had never seen 

 Mendel's paper, although Mendel was familiar with Darwin's 

 work. Indeed the only biologist of note with whom Mendel ap- 

 pears to have been in correspondence was Nageli. The corre- 

 spondence between them is published, but there is no evidence 

 that Nageli grasped the significance of Mendel's discovery. The 



