Mendelism / by R.C. Punnett.

Date:
1907
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Mendelism / by R.C. Punnett. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

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    have been cast upon the all-sufficiency of natural selection in the production of new- species. A revival of interest in these matters, on the part of a few biologists, led in 1900 to the re-discovery of the principles of heredity which Mendel had clearly enunciated nearly forty years before. To gain an idea of the scope of these principles one cannot do better than turn to Mendel's own account of his experiments. In the selection of a plant for experiment Mendel recognised that two conditions must be fulfilled. In the first place the plant must possess differeu- E^^tHt tiating characters, and secondly, the hybrids must be protected from the in- fluence of foreign pollen during the flowering period. In Pisum sativum Mendel found an almost ideal plant to work with. The separate flowers are self-fertilising, whilst complications from insect-interference are practically non- existent. As is well known, there are numerous
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