Man hat häufig die Meinung ausgesprochen, dass die Stabilität der Arten durch die Cultur in hohem Grade erschüttert oder ganz gebrochen werde, und ist sehr geneigt, die Entwicklung der Culturformen als eine regellose und zufällige hinzustellen; dabei wird gewöhnlich auf die Färbung der Zierpflanzen, als Muster aller Unbeständigkeit, hingewiesen.
The opinion has often been expressed that the stability of species is either upset to a high degree or entirely broken by cultivation, and there is a strong inclination to present the development of cultivated forms as irregular and accidental; in this context, the colouration of ornamental plants is usually pointed out as the model of all inconstancy.
opinion = Meinung The question of the effects of domestication on the “stability of species” was much debated in nineteenth-century natural history. Both Carl Friedrich Gärtner’s book on plant hybridisation and Heinrich Georg Bronn’s German translation of Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species contain passages dedicated to this question that were heavily annotated by Mendel. The question was of obvious significance to Mendel since his experiments involved cultivars. Thus he underlined a warning by Gärtner not to draw any general conclusions from the “tendency” (Neigung) of plants to vary under cultivation (Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich (Stuttgart: Hering, 1849), Mendel Museum, Collection of the Augustinian Abbey, p. 160). Gärtner also dedicated a whole chapter to “varieties and their hybrids” (Von den Varietäten und Varietäten-Bastarden) at the end of his book, which was heavily annotated by Mendel. Among other things, he marked Gärtner’s observation that hybrids of varieties show heightened variability in comparison with species hybrids, “especially in relation to the colour of flowers” (op. cit., p. 577). Darwin’s Origin opens with a first chapter on “variation under domestication” (Abänderung durch Domestizität in Bronn’s translation) which Mendel annotated heavily as well, and also repeats Gärtner’s observation of the greater variability induced by crossing varieties (Über die Entstehung der Arten im Thier- und Pflanzen-Reich durch natürliche Züchtung, oder, Erhaltung der vervollkommneten Rassen im Kampfe um’s Daseyn, 2nd ed., transl. by H. G. Bronn, Stuttgart: Schweizerbart, 1863, Mendel Museum, Collection of the Augustinian Abbey, p. 301). For both Gärtner and Darwin, the question of variability under domestication was tied up with the question whether species could be distinguished from varieties. Mendel clearly sided with Darwin’s conclusion that this cannot be done (see p. 6, s. 14).
cultivation = Cultur Mendel clearly has agri- and horticulture in mind here, which is why we translate Cultur with “cultivation”, rather than “culture” (and Culturformen with cultivated forms a little later on in the same sentence; see p. 3, s. 8 on Mendel’s use of the term Form).
colouration = Färbung See p. 10, s. 8.