PLANT HYBRIDIZATION BEFORE MENDEL 343 



and one which already itself constitutes a preliminary investiga- 

 tion into the more complete understanding of the supposed ex- 

 ceptions, which latter formed a few years later one of the main 

 fields of inquiry, until the functioning of several possible factors 

 or "genes," operating for the same single phenotypic "character," 

 was more fully demonstrated. This was probably first achieved, 

 as already stated, by the work of Professor William Bateson for 

 sweet peas ("Reports to the Evolution Committee of the Royal 

 Society." Report II, pp. 88-90; "Experiments carried out by W. 

 Bateson, E. R. Saunders, and R. C. Punnett in 1904," pp. 80-99). 

 Regarding this matter, however. Professor Bateson writes as 

 follows (letter of Februar}^ 2, 1925) : 



"l am not sure whether the color of the sweet peas should be regarded 

 as the first compound character demonstrated. Perhaps it should, but the 

 walnut comb and the hoariness of stocks were made out about the same 

 time. 



c. E. von Tschermak. 



Regarding his discovery of Mendel's paper, and his initial re- 

 search in relation thereto, Professor von Tschermak reports as 

 follows (letter of January 7, 1925) : 



"After the taking of my doctorate at the University of Halle a. S. 

 (1895), ^t the instigation of my teachers Maercker and Riimker, I became 

 occupied for two years as volunteer in the horticultural business of the 

 firms Chr. Bertram, in Stendal (1896), and of Sachs, Dippe and Metter, 

 in Quedlinburg (1897). This sojourn, as well as a visit to the renowned 

 grain-breeding stations in the Province of Saxony, especially to Amtsrat 

 Dr. Rimpau in Schlanstedt, awakened my interest in practical questions. 

 My address ^ 'Concerning methods of improvement and breeding of agri- 

 cultural and horticultural plants in Germany' at the Club der Land-und- 

 Forstwirthe in Vienna, January 7, 1898, brought me into relations with 

 the '"Hochschule fiir Bodenkultur' in Vienna. Prof. Dr. A. Liebenberg 

 placed in prospect for me the assistant's place in his department, which, 

 however, at that time was not vacant. Following the suggestion of a 

 pupil of my father, the mineralogist. Professor Renard, at the University 

 of Ghent, to extend my practical horticultural knowledge among some 

 well-known horticultural enterprises of Belgium, Holland arid France, 

 I betook myself in the spring of 1898 to Ghent. The circumstance, that 

 I there found only the opportunity to get acquainted with hot-house 

 management, but not with the breeding of vegetables and garden flowers 

 as I expected, was the inducement to strive to apply the abundant time 

 remaining available to experimental work in the botanical garden, which 

 interested me so exceedingly that I devoted myself exclusively to my 



1 wiener landwirtschaftliche Zeitung, 1898. 



