468 THE BIOCOSMOS HISTORICAL. 



The third considerable name in the post- 

 Darwinian evolution of Biology is that of 

 Gregor Mendel (1822-1884), an Austrian monk 

 of Briinn. His chief experiment was to take 

 two pure breeds of peas, of different colors 

 and shapes and lengths, and by cross-fertili- 

 zation to produce a hybrid pea. Now this 

 hybrid would have the characteristic of one- 

 parent present, while that of the other parent 

 was absent. Here Mendel had the insight to 

 give names to these two derived characteris- 

 tics, one of which he called dominant, the other 

 recessive. But what has become of that char- 

 acteristic which has disappeared? Is it de- 

 stroyed? Not by any means; to show this 

 fact was the next step in the experiment of 

 Mendel. He took the hybrid and raised from 

 it alone a new crop of peas, which was divided 

 between the two ancestors in a certain pro- 

 portion. Thus the suppressed (or recessive) 

 characteristics of the hybrid again appear in 

 its progeny, part of which follow one grand- 

 parent, part the other. That is, after the re- 

 cession of parental traits, there is the recur- 

 rence of them in the new generation, a return 

 and restoration to the original sources. This 

 stage we cannot find named specially by Men- 

 del, though fully described by him; we may 

 call it the recurrent. Thus the hybrid repro- 

 duced itself doubly in its offspring, alternat- 



