Experiments in Plant Hybridisation

When Mendel released this paper in 1865, it was after years of rigorous study and comparison in plant specimens and their offspring. His conclusion that variant traits were hereditary and could be determined, with a good degree of accuracy, through probability analysis were revolutionary in natural science at the time. Mendel’s assertions regarding acquired characteristics, demonstrated through the comparison of peas and their seeds, would spark great interest in the nature and mechanisms behind heredity between generations of organisms. Seeking to gain high quality results, Mendel prefaces his explanations by noting that he artificially fertilized the plants described in the work. Working in a closed, laboratory environment and with full control over the plants and their successive progeny, Mendel demonstrates via ratios the emergence of inherited characteristics: for example whether a pea’s pods are full or constricted, or whether a pea’s seeds are smooth or wrinkled.