Verschiedene Erfahrungen drängen zu der Ansicht, dass unsere Culturpflanzen mit wenigen Ausnahmen Glieder verschiedener Hybridreihen sind, deren gesetzmässige Weiterentwicklung durch häufige Zwischenkreuzungen abgeändert und aufgehalten wird.
Various experiences enforce the view that our cultivated plants, with few exceptions, are members of different hybrid series, whose lawful further development has been altered and delayed by frequent intercrossings.
experiences = Erfahrungen Bateson has “experiments”, we follow Sherwood.
members = Glieder See p. 20, s. 12.
hybrid series = Hybridreihen This must be the same as what Mendel otherwise calls “combination series” (see p. 21, s. 1) or “developmental series” (see p. 17, s. 6).
lawful further development = gesetzmäßige Weiterentwicklung Bateson has “further development in conformity with law”, Sherwood “development along regular lines”. This is a reference to the “law of combination of differing characters” stated on p. 22, s. 7.
intercrossings = Zwischenkreuzungen Bateson has “crossings inter se”, Sherwood “intraspecific crossings”. Mendel has in mind crossings between genetic varieties like the ones he did his experiments with. Since his “law of combination of differing characters” describes the transmission of traits for “self-fertilising” populations, any cross-fertilisations will disturb it, e.g. by masking recessives. Mendel was aware, that is, that his “laws” did not describe trait transmission in natural or cultivated populations. This is especially true for the model he develops for “further generations of hybrids” on p. 17, s. 8, since it builds entirely on the assumption of self-fertilisation.