162 TILLEES OF THE GKOUND CHAP. 



kinds of peas, and grew them all for two years, to see 

 which suited him best. Of these he decided that 

 twenty-two kinds were suitable; these twenty-two 

 he grew during the whole period of his experiment. 

 We should try to think what this means. Mendel 

 tells about it so simply and so naturally, that one 

 would suppose that to grow twenty-two different 

 kinds of peas and keep them all separate was the 

 most natural and simple thing in the world. 



He then goes on to tell about his experiments 

 -after the two years of preliminary work. He made 

 seven different sets of experiments, and these seven 

 .sets of experiments involved the fertilisation of two 

 hundred and eighty-seven flowers. Each of those 

 two hundred and eighty-seven flowers was opened 

 while it was still in bud. From each of those buds 

 the ten stamens were delicately picked out with a 

 pair of fine forceps. On the seed-pods of each one 

 of those two hundred and eighty -seven flowers, 

 pollen from another flower was placed. Each one 

 of the flowers so crossed was then covered up so 

 as to prevent insects bringing any other pollen 

 to them. 



This was the beginning of Mendel's experiment. 

 It was also only the main experiment, and does not 

 include all the extra observations that had to be 

 made to be sure that all was going right. He 

 speaks quite simply of examining carefully ten 



