PLANT BREEDING ii 



eight years. His largest undertaking, besides the 

 work on Pisum, was an investigation on the heredity 

 of Bees. He had fifty hives under observation, but 

 the notes which he is known to have made on these 

 experiments can nowhere be found, and it is now 

 feared that they must have been destroyed, possibly 

 inadvertently. 



The types of the great discoverers are most 

 varied. The wild, uncertain, rapid flash of genius, 

 the scattered, half-focussed daylight of generalisa- 

 tion, and the steady, slowly- perfected ray of pene- 

 trative analysis, are all lights in which truth may 

 be seen. Mendel's faculty was of the latter order. 



From the fragmentary records of him in his 

 biography we can form a fairly true idea of the man, 

 with his clear head, strong interest in practical 

 affairs, obstinate determination, and power of 

 pursuing an abstract idea. 



The total neglect of his work during his lifetime 

 is known to have been a serious disappointment to 

 him. He is reported constantly to have said: 

 " Meine Zeit wird schon kommen " (My time will 

 surely come). 



Mendelian Theories. — ^The case which illustrates 

 Mendel's methods in the simplest way is that in 

 which heredity in respect of height was studied. 



Mendel took a pair of Sweet Peas, of which one 

 was tall (6 to 7 feet), and the other dwarf (9 to 18 

 inches). These two were then crossed together. 

 The cross-bred seeds thus produced grew into 

 plants which were always tall^ having a height not 

 sensibly different from that of the pure tall variety 

 from which the cross was made. In Mendelian 

 terms, this first, cross-bred, filial generation is 



