MIRACLES OF SCIENCE 



mentous one, consisted in the main of a series of 

 careful observations on the cultivation of ordinary 

 eating peas in the garden of the cloister of Briinn. 



It will readily be understood, after what has been 

 said, that Mendel's observations in regard to his peas 

 were something quite out of the ordinary. His re- 

 sults were indeed extraordinary to- a degree. Yet 

 like many extraordinary things they had the merit 

 of great simplicity. The essential element of their 

 success depended on keen observation and the capac- 

 ity to make painstaking experiments, and to note the 

 results of these experiments with accuracy and im- 

 partiality. 



There was nothing in the experiments themselves 

 that may not readily be duplicated by any one who 

 has a small garden plot and is willing to devote a 

 certain amount of time to the cultivation of peas. 



Mendel's crucial experiments were based on the 

 observation that different varieties of the garden pea 

 show different qualities of vine and flower and seed- 

 pod and seed that may be grouped or contrasted in 

 antagonistic pairs. For example, the vines may be 

 tall or dwarfed. The flowers may be purple or white. 

 The pods may be smooth or hairy. The peas them- 

 selves may be smooth or wrinkled in contour, and 

 green or yellow in color. These divergent qualities 

 may be variously intermingled. That is to say, white 

 flowers, for example, are not confined to either a tall 

 or dwarfed vine; and the same is true of each of the 

 other qualities. But a given variety of pea, once 

 fixed as such, would show a certain combination of 

 qualities. One variety, for example, would have a 



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