lo THE GLORY OF THE GARDEN 



It is recorded of his father that he took special 

 interest in fruit culture, and initiated his son at an 

 early age into the mysteries of grafting. 



Gregor Mendel attended a government school 

 in the village, v^here his talent was soon obvious. 

 The result of this wsls that, when he was only 

 eleven years old, he was sent to Leipzig, and here he 

 distinguished himself so much that he was sent on 

 to Troppau, although the parental resources were 

 rather severely taxed by this effort. 



At Troppau one of the instructors was an 

 Augustinian, and possibly his description of the 

 scholarly quiet of the cloisters may have turned 

 Mendel's thoughts in this direction. For very 

 shortly he became a candidate for admission to 

 the Augustinian house of St. Thomas in Briinn. 

 He was admitted to the monastery, and elected 

 with a view to his taking part in the educational 

 work; in 1847 he was ordained priest. At the 

 expense of the cloister he was sent in 1851 to the 

 University of Vienna, where he remained till 1853, 

 studying mathematics, physics, and natural science. 

 On returning to Briinn he became a teacher, and 

 he appears to have taken great pleasure in this 

 work, and to have been quite extraordinarily suc- 

 cessful in instructing, and also interesting, his pupils. 



In 1868 he was elected Abbot, or Pralat, of the 

 monastery. The experiments which have made his 

 name famous throughout the world were carried 

 out in the large garden belonging to the monastery. 



With the views of Darwin^ which at that time 

 were coming into prominence, Mendel did not 

 find himself in full agreement, and he embarked on 

 his experiments with Peas, which he continued for 



