PLANT BREEDING 71 



form as follows : where A is one of the characters and 

 B the other the result in the second generation of the 

 offspring is that, however many there are, they are 

 in the proportion, 1A+ 2AB+ IB. 



But this is not at once apparent to the uninitiated, 

 for in the pairs of characters we find that one is stronger 

 than the other and masks it. For instance, if one pair 

 of characters is the smoothness and the hairiness of the 

 leaf, then if the hairiness is the strongest character, 

 the dominant, as it is technically called, it hides the 

 other, and of the offspring we get one smooth, one 

 hairy, and two smooth-hairy, which appear hairy, thus 

 giving as an apparent result one smooth and three 

 hairy. The existence of the smoothness in the hairy 

 ones comes out when they are bred again, and from the 

 two mixed parents, which looked hairy, one offspring 

 h smooth, one hairy, and again two mixed. 



Of course in any given individual there are the results 

 of an enormous number of pairs of characters, and the 

 more highly organised the organism the greater the 

 complexity of the characters, so that the extreme 

 arithmetical simplicity of Mendel's law is all the more 

 surprising, and it stands out like a solid rock in a sea 

 of uncertainty. 



Nevertheless, the meaning of Mendel's work and the 

 value it has, both for theoretical and practical purposes, 

 was very long in receiving recognition. Mendel himself 

 died (in 1884) before scientists had awakened to the 

 realisatiqikpf his discoveries, and it is indeed only in 

 the last aecade that there has been any considerable 

 recognition accorded him. 



Like all really great theories or formulated laws, that 

 of Mendel has stimulated other workers to experiment, 

 some with the object of proving and others disproving 

 it, and the advantage of this is that innumerable new 



