6 Che Orchid Review % 
CA VoL. XXVIII. SEPT.-Ocr., 1919. No. 321-322. gS 
OUR NOTE BOOK. 9 
SS ae 
HE establishment of a Society for the promotion of the study of Genetics, 
as announced on anotlier page, should be welcome, both from the 
- economic and the scientific stand-point. Enormous progress has already 
been made in the production of economically valuable races of plants and 
: animals by practical breeders, who have looked rather askance at some of 
the recent developments of experimental research, while on the other hand 
students of genetics have not always accorded to breeders the full value of 
their achievements. There has been a want of co-operation and oftentimes 
a want of sympathy between the two classes of workers, which a fuller inter- 
change of ideas should tend to remove, and the Genetical Society will find 
a vast field for its energies. 
The objects of the two classes of workers are somewhat divergent. The 
breeder sets out to increase the value and utility of the domesticated races of 
plants and animals, and accordingly concentrates his attention on those 
qualities in which improvement is desired. Modern genetic research largely 
| concerns itself with the heredity of characters, quite independent of their 
ng upon the theory of Evolution, the 
utility, because of its supposed beari 
ll elucidate 
central idea being that experiments with existing organisms wi 
thecours2 of Evolution in the past. This belief is based upon what has 
come to be termed the ‘ Law of Mendelian heredity,” and around this the 
work of the Genetical Society is likely to focus itself for a long: time to 
come, - 
es can be utilised in the 
How far experiments upon Mendelian lin 
Early experimenters 
improvement of garden plants remains to be proved. 
in intercrossing and selection were guided solely by utilitarian considera-— 
ect was beset with limitations, and 
d similar methods led to an 
lved, and ultimately to the 
set of experiments which will ever be associated with the name of Mendel. 
Although Mendel appreciated the work and “inexhaustible perseverance” 
' 133 
