Preface 



This book deals, as its title indicates, with the 

 facts discovered by Mendel; and with the bearing 

 of these facts, and of the theory put forward to ex- 

 plain them, on the science of heredity and the practice 

 of breeding. It is intended to serve merely as an 

 introduction to the subject. My conception of the 

 most serviceable form of such an introduction has 

 not been to place before the reader a sketch which 

 takes in the whole range of discovery and speculation 

 in this sphere of inquiry, but, rather, to open the 

 door to an intimate familiarity with a few instances 

 of the Mendelian phenomenon, and especially w4th 

 those studied by Mendel himself. To this end I have 

 given a fuller account of the phenomena observed 

 by Mendel than has yet appeared in popular form : 

 the seven pairs of characters studied by him are all 

 figured for the first time ; and other results of his 

 are illustrated by photographs from specimens which 

 I have bred myself. But, in case the reader takes 

 up the position, with which I heartily sympathise, 

 of refusing to be satisfied with anything short of 

 actually seeing the things which Mendel discovered, 

 I have given full instructions as to how such an 



