TH ORCHID. REVIEW. 
Von. AYVit.| SEPTEMBER, 1909. [No. 201. 
NOTICE OF BOOK, 
Mendel’s Principles of Heredity. By W. Bateson, M.A., F.R.S., V.M.H. 
8vo., pp. 396, with three portraits of Mendel, six coloured plates, and 
33 figures and diagrams. Cambridge University Press, 1go9. 
THE object of this book is to give a succinct account of discoveries in regard 
to heredity made by the application of Mendel’s Method of Research, which 
it is remarked in the preface has reached a point from which classes of 
phenomena hitherto proverbial for their seeming irregularity, can be 
recognised as parts of a consistent whole. It is divided into two parts, the 
first dealing with general principles, while the second contains a biographical 
notice of Mendel, and translations of his papers on Peas and Hieracium, with 
a Bibliography and a separate Index of subjects and authors. 
The first part contains sixteen chapters, the introductory one dealing 
with Mendel’s Discovery. Then follow, the Material Investigated, 
Numerical Consequences and Recommendations, no fewer than five dealing 
with the Heredity of Colour, Genetic Coupling and Spurious Allelomorphism, 
Heredity and Sex, Double Flowers, Evidence as to Mendelian Inheritance 
in Man, Intermediates between Varieties and the ‘‘ Pure Lines ” of 
Johannsen, Miscellaneous Exceptional and Unconformable Phenomena, 
Biological Conceptions in the Light of Mendelian Discoveries, and Practical 
Application of Mendelian Principles. 
The materials are drawn from a wide field, zoological and botanical, 
ranging from mice to lepidoptera, and from sweet-peas to Orchids, though 
the Orchidist will probably be disappointed to find so few facts drawn from 
his own particular field, considering the enormous number of experiments 
that have been carried out. But it is explained that the progress of 
experiments with the extension of Mendelian conceptions has been so rapid 
that a difficulty was found in presenting the facts adequately within a 
moderate compass. But the Orchidist will be interested to learn the general 
principles involved, which he may then be able to apply for himself. : 
As regards the practical application of Mendel’s principles, it is 
remarked that they ‘will probably far exceed any limits we can yet 
perceive,” though after the claims that have been put forward it is 
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