744 EXPERIMENT STATION RECORD. 



A species hybrid between the cultivated salsify and the wild species is reported 

 upon at some length. The hybrid seems to be intermediate between the 2 parent 

 forms. 



Experiments in plant hybridization, G. Mendel {Jour. Roy. Hort. Sac. [^Lon- 

 don'] , 36 { 1901 ) , Xo. 1, pp. 1-32 ) . — Herewith is given a translation of this paper which 

 was first published in 1865 in the Abluindlunrjendesnatnrforschenden Vereines in Britnn 

 (volume 4). The importance of the article attracted little attention at the time, 

 owJnjj; to the greater attention being given to the Darwinian doctrines regarding the 

 jjroblems of species. Recently work along this line has been resumed Vjy a number 

 of hybridists and the article rediscovered and found to have an unusual value in this 

 connection. In the article the results are given in detail of 8 years' experiments 

 with peas {Pisum sativum), and the law is definitely established for the plants under 

 observation that "in respect of certain pairs of differentiating characters the germ 

 cells of a hybrid, or crossbred, are pure being carriers and transmitters of either the 

 one character or the other, not both." The original parental characters remain intact 

 and do not coalesce but reappear in the progeny in a certain definite ratio, in accord- 

 ance with their "dominant" or "recessive" characteristics. When peas were 

 crossed which differentiated from each other in one characteristic only, the hybrid 

 character of the progeny so closely resembled that of one of the parental forms that 

 the other either escaped observation completely or could not be detected with cer- 

 tainty. The character which is transmitted intact or almost so in the hybridization 

 is termed by the author the "dominant" character, and those which become latent 

 in the proce.ss the "recessive" characters; and it is further shown that it is immate- 

 rial whether the dominant character belongs to the seed-bearing or to the pollen- 

 bearing plant, the form of the hybrid remains the same in both cases. As a result 

 of several series of experiments in which peas were used Avhich differed from one 

 another in one characteristic only, it was definitely established that the relation of 

 the dominant to the recessive characters, in the case of the pea at least, is as :]:1. 

 The hybrid forms which maintain the recessive characters in the first generation 

 remain constant in their offspring for all subsequent generations and do not vary 

 as regards this character. When the seed showing the dominant character is grown, 

 however, and self- fertilized, two-thirds yield offspring which show the dominant and 

 recessive characters in the proportion of 3:1, while only one-third remain with the 

 dominant characters constant. The ratio of 3:1 which appears in the first genera- 

 tion therefore resolves itself in the second generation to 2:1:1, and this relation, it is 

 thought, will probably hold true for all subsequent progeny, since in trials as regards 

 form and color of the peas it held good for 6 generations through which the experi- 

 ment was carried. 



Peas differing from one another in several characteristics were also experimented 

 with and the results secured are given in great detail. As the number of differen- 

 tiating characters increases, the complexity of the results also increases, but "for 

 the w hole of the characters involved in the trials the principle applies that the off- 

 spring of the hybrids in which several essentially different characters are combined 

 represent the components of a series of com))inations, in which the developmental 

 series for each two different characters are associated. It is demonstrated at the 

 same time that the relation of each two different characters in hybrid connection is 

 independent of the other differences in the two original parental stocks." 



In investigating the composition of the egg and pollen cells of hybrids, the theory 

 that "pea hybrids form egg and pollen cells which, in their constitution, represent 

 in equal numbers all constant forms which result from the combination of the char- 

 acters when conjoined by fertilization," was justified experimentally. Experiments 

 with beans [Phnseolus spp. ) led to a like conclusion. 



The article contains an introductory note by W. Bateson, in which a brief l)io- 

 graphical sketch is given of the author and some comments made upon the i)aper. 

 In these remarks ]\Ir. Bateson states that it is hardlv too much to sav that Mendel's 



