io8 MENDEL : 



That the theory in question is one of far-reach- 

 ing importance may be gathered from the fact that 

 Bateson has declared that " his [Mendel's] experi- 

 ments are worthy to rank with those which laid 

 the foundation of the atomic laws of chemistry," 

 and that Lock claims that his discovery was " of 

 an importance little inferior to those of a Newton 

 or a Dalton." 



Though later experiments in connexion with 

 this matter of hybridity have been conducted in 

 connexion with many kinds of animals as well as 

 plants, Mendel himself was occupied with plants 

 alone, and his most important observations were 

 made on the garden pea, Pisum sativum. What 

 these observations were, and what conclusions 

 they have led to, it will now be the business of this 

 article to detail. The main theory is not difficult 

 of comprehension, but the intense research which 

 has lately been directed to this subject has led to 

 many complicated side-discoveries and has neces- 

 sitated a nomenclature here purposely omitted 

 which is a little difficult of comprehension to 

 those who have not been brought up to biological 

 studies. To begin with, then, Mendel's first in- 

 novation was the examination, not of plants as a 

 whole, but of isolated pairs of characters belong- 

 ing to certain plants. For example, in his study of 

 the pea he found that there were some which had 

 a greenish colour of the endosperm, or substance 

 of the part of the pea which one eats, whilst others 

 were yellow. Some were tall, others were dwarfs ; 

 some had round, ripe seeds, others angular and 

 wrinkled. For the purposes of his experiments he 



