Obwohl auch bei diesen beiden Versuchen einige Samen nicht keimten, konnte dadurch in den schon im vorhergehenden Jahre gefundenen Zahlen nichts geändert werden, da jede Samenart Pflanzen gab, die in Bezug auf die Samen unter sich gleich und von den anderen verschieden waren.
Although in these two experiments as well some seeds did not germinate, this could not change anything in the numbers that had been found in the previous year already, because each species of seed gave plants that were equal among themselves, and different from the others, with respect to the seeds.
Since, in contrast to the first and third trial, the second and fourth trials involve crosses of hybrid with purely recessive forms, all different combination forms already appear in F1, and only reappear in F2. Mendel can therefore rely on the numbers from F1 in order to establish the genetic constitution of the hybrid germ cells, using the results from F2 only as an ascertainment. It should be noted, though, that this reasoning involves some degree of circularity, since it relies on assumptions about the genetic constitution of the hybrid germ cells that are supposed to be put to a test here.
species of seed = Samenart Bateson and Sherwood have “kind of seed”; see p. 6, s. 14.