60 THE MENDEL JOURNAL 



one that they furnish a strilcing example of some of 

 the laws propounded by Gregor Mendel, as I shall 

 now attempt to prove, 



Mendel selected a tall pea (the offspring of tall 

 parents) and crossed it with a dwarf pea (the offspring 

 of dwarf parents). The hybrids resulting from this 

 cross were all tall, thus 



Tall X Dwarf. 



Tall (Hybrid). 



These hybrids crossed with dwarfs produced tails 

 and dwarfs in equal numbers. 



He also experimented with other characters 

 besides stature, such as colour of flowers (purple and 

 white), shape of seeds (smooth and wrinkled), colour 

 of seeds (yellow and green), and found the same laws 

 to hold good. The first hybrids exactly resembled- 

 one of the parents in respect of the chosen character, 

 and when these were again crossed with a plant pre- 

 senting the alternative character of the other parent, 

 he got in the next generation both kinds in equal 

 numbers. 



Thus :— 



Tall X Dwarf. 



Tall X Dwarf. 



Tall and Dwarf in equal numbers. 

 The abnormality of these short-fingered people is 

 a dominant character,-^-' and each individual may be 

 compared to the tall hybrid plant in the above 



* See Mr. Scourfield's paper for an explanation of this term, p. 24. 



