Heredity 155 



crossing garden peas. Mendel's work, however, was little 

 known at the time and did not receive public recognition 

 until many years afterwards. 



Rediscovery of Mendel's work by de Vries and others. 

 de Vries made a thorough search of the literature of plant 

 evolution. In an American publication x he saw a ref- 

 erence to an article on plant hybrids by G. Mendel, 

 published in 1865 in the proceedings of a natural history 

 of Briinn in Austria. 



On looking up this paper he was astonished to find that 

 it discussed fundamental questions of hybridization and 

 heredity, and that it had remained practically unknown 

 for a generation. In 1900 he published an account of it, 

 and this was soon followed by independent discussions 

 by Correns, Tschermak, and Bateson. In May, 1900, 

 Bateson gave an abstract of Mendel's work before the 

 Royal Horticultural Society of England; and later the 

 society published a translation of Mendel's original paper. 

 It is only within the last 10 or 12 years that a knowledge 

 of Mendel's work has become widespread in this country. 

 Perhaps the agencies that are most responsible for dis- 



1 The following extract from a letter from Professor de Vries (printed 

 here by permission) will explain the reference in the text : " Many years 

 ago you had the kindness to send me your article on ' Cross-breeding and 

 Hybridizing ' of 1892 ; and I hope it will interest you to know that it was 

 by means of your bibliography therein that I learnt some years after- 

 wards of the existence of Mendel's papers, which now are coming to so 

 high credit. Without your aid I fear I should not have found them at 

 all." My reference to Mendel in the bibliography referred to was taken 

 from Focke's writing. I had not seen Mendel's paper. The essay, 

 "Cross-breeding and Hybridizing," formed Chapter II of the old 

 "Plant-Breeding"; but the bibliography that accompanied it was not 

 reprinted until the second edition of the book. L. H. B. 



