Als Samenpflanze diente Ph. nanus L., eine ganz constante Art mit weissen Blüthen in kurzen Trauben und kleinen weissen Samen in geraden, gewölbten und glatten Hülsen; als Pollenpflanze Ph. multiflorus W. mit hohem windenden Stengel, purpurrothen Blüthen in sehr langen Trauben, rauhen sichelförmig gekrümmten Hülsen und grossen Samen, welche auf pfirsichblüthrothem Grunde schwarz gefleckt und geflammt sind.
Ph. nanus L. served as seed plant, an entirely constant species with white flowers in short clusters and small white seeds in straight, arched and smooth pods; Ph. multiflorus W. as pollen plant with a high, twisting stem, purple flowers in very long clusters, rough pods bent in a sickle shape, and large seeds that are speckled and mottled in black on a peachblossom-red background.
constant = constante See p. 5, s. 5.
species = Art See p. 6, s. 14.
Ph. multiflorus W. The runner bean, or scarlet runner bean, german Feuerbohne, as it is called due to its conspicuous flowers. It is also grown as an ornamental plant. W. is the abbreviation for Carl Ludwig Willdenow, who described this Mexican species of Phaseolus in the fourth edition that he edited of Linnaeus’s Species plantarum (Berlin: C. C. Nauck, 1797–1830, vol. 3–2, p. 1030). It is also listed in Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach Flora germanica excursoria ex affinitate regni vegetabilis naturali disposit (Leipzig: Cnobloch, 1830–1833), vol. 2 (1802), p. 539. It later turned out to be a synonym of Ph. coccineus L. In contrast to Ph. nanus, which is classified as a variety of Ph. vulgaris (see p. 32, s. 7), Ph. coccineus is considered a proper species by most contemporary botanists, although it is acknowledged that it hybridises with Ph. vulgaris, especially when cultivated; see J. Smartt, “The possible status of Phaseolus coccineus L. SSP. Darwinianus Hdz. X. et Miranda C. as a distinct species and cultigen of the genus Phaseolus”, Euphytica 22 (1973), pp. 424–426 and A. Delgado-Salina et al., “Phylogenetic Analysis of the Cultivated and Wild Species of Phaseolus (Fabaceae)”, Systematic Botany 24 (1999), pp. 438–460.
peachblossom-red = pfirsichblüthrothem We follow Sherwood’s translation; Bateson has “peach-blood-red”. It should be pfirsichblüthenrothem, and blüth may indeed be a misprint for blut (“blood”), but it is more likely that Mendel simply intended to refer to the distinctive colour of peach flowers. The term was a common colour term at Mendel’s time, used to describe minerals and plants; see e.g. August Neilreich, Flora von Wien (Vienna: Fr. Beck, 1846), p. 127.