, 



APPENDIX ** % K^ 



"'<.' * ^fc^ V t 



EXPERIMENTS IN PLANT-HYBRIDISATION \ - 1 ? * R A ? 



By Gregor Mendel \ / 



(flead ai the Meetings of the 8th February and 8th March, 1865.) 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



Experience of artificial fertilisation, such as is effected with orna- 

 mental plants in order to obtain new variations in colour, has led 

 to the experiments which will here be discussed. The striking- 

 regularity with which the same hybrid forms always reappeared 

 whenever fertilisation took place between the same species induced 

 further experiments to be undertaken, the object of which was to 

 follow up the developments of the hybrids in their progeny. 



To this object numerous careful observers, such as Kolreuter, 

 Gartner, Herbert, Lecoq, Wichura and others, have devoted a part 

 of their lives with inexhaustible perseverance. Gartner especially, 

 in his work "Die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreiche " (The Pro- 

 duction of Hybrids in the Vegetable Kingdom), has recorded very 

 valuable observations; and quite recently Wichura published 

 the results of some profound investigations into the hybrids of the 

 Willow. That, so far, no generally applicable law governing the 

 formation and development of hybrids has been successfully formu- 

 lated can hardly be wondered at by anyone who is acquainted with 

 the extent of the task, and can appreciate the difficulties with 

 which experiments of this class have to contend. A final decision 

 can only be arrived at when we shall have before us the results of 

 detailed experiments made on plants belonging to the most diverse 

 orders. 



Those who survey the work done in this department will arrive 

 at the conviction that among all the numerous experiments made, 

 not one has been carried out to such an extent and in such a way as 



1 This translation was made by the Royal Horticultural Society of London, and 

 is reprinted, by permission of the Council of the Society, with footnotes added and 

 minor changes suggested by Professor W. Bateson, enclosed within [ ]. The original 

 paper was published in the Verh. naturf. Ver. in Brunn, Abkandlungen, iv. 1865, 

 which appeared in 1866. 



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