18 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



worries of a protracted resistance to what he con- 

 sidered an unjust law imposing special taxes upon 

 the property of religious houses, he seems to have 

 found but little time for further scientific investiga- 

 tions. He died on the 6th January, 1884, at the 

 age of sixty-one. 



3. Mendel's Scientific Work. 



Mendel's scientific interests were very varied, 

 but may be grouped mainly under the two heads 

 of experimental Botany and Meteorology. As regards 

 the latter he made systematic observations for 

 many years on the meteorological conditions of 

 Briinn, which were communicated to and published 

 by the Naturforschender Verein (Natural History 

 Society) in Briinn in their " Verhandlungen " from 

 the year 1863 onwards. He also published in the 

 same journal a special paper in connection with a 

 cyclone which swept over the district in October, 

 1870. It is further known that he made observations 

 on sun-spots, especially from the point of view of 

 their possible connection with weather conditions, 

 and that he also gave some attention to the systematic 

 measurement of underground water. 



It was, however, to the experimental study of the 

 effects of hybridisation in plants that his energies 

 were mainly directed. He seems to have been 

 attracted to this subject by observing the great 

 regularity in the appearance of identical hybrid 

 forms whenever crosses were made between the 

 same species, and he must have conceived the idea 



