Damit ist zugleich der factische Beweis geliefert, dass constante Merkmale, welche an verschiedenen Formen einer Pflanzensippe vorkommen, auf dem Wege der wiederholten künstlichen Befruchtung in alle Verbindungen treten können, welche nach den Regeln der Combination möglich sind.
With this, the factual proof is furnished that constant traits which occur in the various forms of a plant taxon can enter into all conjunctions that are possible according to the rules of combination by way of repeated artificial fertilisation.
Mendel formulates the “law of independent assortment” in yet another way in this sentence, revealing that it has a practical dimension; see p. 22, s. 7 for further discussion.
factual = factische Bateson has “practical”, we follow Sherwood. It is unclear what Mendel has in mind with this adjective. It may be that he wanted to emphasise the conclusiveness of his demonstration, since factisch can also be translated as “definitive”; or he may have wanted to point out that his proof, in the end, was bound to a particular empirical case.
constant = constantes See p. 5, s. 5.
taxon = Sippe Bateson has “group”, Sherwood “kindred”. In its literal meaning, Sippe indeed refers to a clan or extended family. However, in botany it was used, for example by Wolfgang von Goethe, to designate taxonomic groups of uncertain rank at the lower end of the taxonomic hierachy; see Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, Deutsches Wörterbuch, online-edition, s.v. “sippe” (1901).
conjunction = Verbindung See p. 10, s. 14.
rules = Regeln Mendel seems to distinguish between “rules” (Regeln) in mathematics and “laws” (Gesetze) in the natural sciences (cf. p. 29, s. 12). As “rule” in English, Regel has a strong flavour of just being a convention, governing a particular branch of art, or a game.
by way of = auf dem Wege der Mendel is hinting at a systematic procedure here to obtain new combinations of traits, and the fact that he emphasises this statement typographically is an indication that he was aware of its practical significance. Robert Olby quotes C. W. Eichling, a horticulturalist, who visited Mendel in 1886 and asked him how peas growing in the latter’s garden had been “reshaped in height as well as in type of fruit”. According to Eichling, Mendel answered: “It is just a little trick, but there is a long story connected with it which it would take too long to tell”; see Robert C. Olby, Origins of Mendelism, 2nd edition (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985), 90.
artificial = künstlichen Mendel inserted this word later into the manuscript. It is not quite clear why he did so, since in his experiments he only uses artificial fertilisation to produce the hybrids; the subsequent generations in which recombination occurs are produced by leaving the hybrids to fertilise themselves. In the case of seed characters, however, the combinations will appear on the hybrid plant already, and thus may appear to be due to the artifical fertilisation that produced the hybrid.