CHAPTER II 



PLANT BREEDING, IN ITS RELATION TO GARDENING 



" Evolution ever climbing after some ideal good, 

 And Reversion ever dragging evolution in the mud." 



Tennyson. 



Among the biological sciences, the study of heredity 

 must necessarily occupy a central position, and 

 although as gardeners we are not directly concerned 

 with the application of science, we must never- 

 theless perceive that in no branch of knowledge 

 is research more likely to increase our power over 

 nature. 



Whilst the experimental " study of the species " 

 problem was in great activity, the Darwinian 

 writings appeared. Evolution, from being an un- 

 supported problem, was shown to be plainly de- 

 ducible from ordinary experience, and the reality 

 of the process was no longer doubted. 



But Mendel, and his working out of the Mendelian 

 principles, has carried us far beyond the beginning 

 that Darwin made. 



Darwin indeed paved the way, and, as it were, 

 laid the foundation stones, but to Mendel was 

 given the golden key which should unlock the door 

 into the mysteries of the laws governing the study 

 of plant breeding and genetics. 



History of Mendel, — Mendel was born in 1822, 

 in the " Kuhland " district of Austrian Silesia. 



