neration; and thirdly, the statistical results of the
hybridization of the plants in successive generations, are the secret
of the success of Mendel's work, as has been very well said by
Bateson, in commenting on this paragraph in his work on Mendel's
"Principles of Heredity." This was the first time that any one had
ever realized exactly the nature of the problems presented in, their
naked simplicity. "To see a problem well is more than half to solve
it," and this proved to be the case with Mendel's straightforward
vision of the nature of the experiments required for advance in our
knowledge of heredity.

{207}

While Mendel was beginning his experiments almost absolutely under the
guidance of his own scientific spirit, and undertaking his series of
observations in the monastery garden without any reference to other
work in this line, he knew very well what distinguished botanists were
doing in this line and was by no means presumptuously following a
study of the deepest of nature's problems without knowing what others
had accomplished in the matter in recent years. In the second
paragraph of his introduction he quotes the men whose work in this
science was attracting attention, and says that to this object
numerous careful observers, such a Koelreuter, Gaertner, Herbert, Lecoq,
Wichura and others, had devoted a part of their lives with
inexhaustible perseverance.

To quote Mendel's own words:--

Gaertner, especially in his work, "Die Bastarderzeugung im
Pflanzenreiche," [Footnote 17] has recorded very valuable
observations; and quite recently Wichura published the results of
some profound observations on the hybrids of the willow. That so far
no generally applicable law governing the formation and development
of hybrids has been successfully formulated can hardly be wondered
at by anyone who is acquainted with the extent of the task and can
appreciate the difficulties with which experiments of this class
have to contend. A final decision can only be arrived at when we
shall have before us the results of the changed detailed experiments
made on plants belonging to the most diverse orders. It requires
some courage indeed to undertake a labor of such far-reaching
extent; it appears, however, to be the only right way by which we
can finally reach the solution of a question the importance of which
can not be overestimated in connexion with the history of the
evolution of organic forms.