PEAS AND BEANS 141 



The results Mendel obtained have already 

 been outlined, and more than once referred to in 

 this and in previous volumes. 



It will be recalled that, as regards the various 

 pairs of antagonistic characters, he found that 

 one or the other proved prepotent or dominant 

 in the first generation ; but in the second gener- 

 ation (when the first generation hybrids were 

 inbred) the submerged or recessive character 

 would reappear in one case in four on the 

 average. Thus he found that in the pea tallness 

 of stalk is dominant to shortness of stalk; that 

 yellowness of seed is dominant to greenness of 

 seed, etc. This was demonstrated by the fact 

 when a tall pea was crossed with a short one all 

 the offspring were tall, but one-fourth of the 

 offspring of the second generation were short. 



Similarly when a pea with yellow pods was 

 crossed with one having green pods, all the 

 plants of the first generation had yellow pods; 

 but one-fourth of their offspring of the next 

 generation had green pods. 



The Segregation of Characters 



A second very important feature discovered 

 by Mendel was that the different antagonistic 

 pairs of qualities are transmitted quite inde- 

 pendently of one another. 



