Bei dem ersten und dritten Versuche kommen die dominirenden Merkmale der Gestalt und Farbe A und B in jeder Verbindung vor, und zwar zum Theile constant, zum Theile in hybrider Vereinigung mit den recessiven Characteren a und b, wesshalb sie sämmtlichen Samen ihre Eigenthümlichkeit aufprägen müssen.
In the first and third trials, the dominating traits A and B for shape and colour occur in each conjunction, in part constantly, in part in hybrid union with the recessive characteristics a and b, which is why they have to impress their peculiarity on all seeds.
This sentence does indeed state that “traits” (Merkmale) literally do something to the seeds. It is notable that Mendel’s descriptions of experiments, here, as well as in the preceding sections, remains on the phenomenological, although he states at the beginning of this section that his aim of the experiments is to reveal the “constitution of the germ- and pollen cells of hybrids” (p. 24, s. 4) in terms of Anlagen or “factors” (p. 24, s. 7). He only switches back to talk about the “constitution” of hybrid gametes on p. 29, s. 4.
trials = Versuche See p. 3, s. 6.
dominating = dominirende See p. 10, s. 14.
conjunction = Verbindung See p. 10, s. 14.
constantly = constant See p. 5, s. 5.
hybrid union = hybrider Vereinigung Sherwood has “hybrid association”; see p. 41, s. 6.
recessive = recessiven See p. 10, s. 14.
characteristics = Characteren See p. 7, s. 8.
peculiarity = Eigenthümlichkeit Sherwood has “characteristics”, we follow Bateson; see p. 12, s. 4.