Es unterliegt daher keinem Zweifel, dass für sämmtliche in die Versuche aufgenommenen Merkmale der Satz Giltigkeit habe: die Nachkommen der Hybriden, in welchen mehrere wesentlich verschiedene Merkmale vereinigt sind, stellen die Glieder einer Combinationsreihe vor, in welchen die Entwicklungsreihen für je zwei differirende Merkmale verbunden sind.
It can therefore not be doubted that for all traits admitted to the experiments this statement possesses validity: The descendants of hybrids, in which several essentially different traits are united, represent the members of a combination series, in which the developmental series for two differing traits respectively are conjoined.
This and the following sentence come closest to what today’s geneticists would call the “law of independent assortment”. Note, however, that Mendel formulates it in a way that includes the so-called “law of segregation” (which he comes close to formulating on p. 17, s. 1) as a special case. Later on in his paper, Mendel seems to refer to this statement as the “law of combination of differing traits” (p. 32, s. 2) and also in later instances he refers to one “developmental law” only (see p. 32, s. 4 and p. 34, s. 1; for further discussion see p. 18, s. 7).
several essentially different = mehrere wesentlich verschiedene This refers to the characters (seed shape, albumen colour etc.) for which Mendel defines pairs of traits (round vs. angular, green vs. yellow etc.). They are “essentially” different because they cannot be predicated of each other (e.g. yellow is not a predicate of seed shape).
united = vereinigt See p. 41, s. 6.
members = Glieder See p. 20, s. 12.
combination series = Combinationsreihe Bateson has “series of combinations”; see p. 21, s. 1.
developmental series = Entwicklungsreihen See p. 17, s. 6.
two differing traits respectively = je zwei differirende Merkmale See p. 7, s. 3.
conjoined = verbunden Bateson has “combined”; see p. 10, s. 14. In this instance, verbunden can be read more concretely as “multiplying” developmental series; see p. 21, s. 2.