Wären z. B. die beiden Stammarten in 7 Merkmalen verschieden, und würden aus den Samen ihrer Hybriden zur Beurtheilung des Verwandtschafts-Grades der Nachkommen 100 bis 200 Pflanzen gezogen, so sehen wir leicht ein, wie unsicher das Urtheil ausfallen müsste, da für 7 differirende Merkmale die Entwicklungsreihe 16,384 Individuen unter 2187 verschiedenen Formen enthält.
If, for example, the two parent-species differed by 7 traits, and if 100–200 plants were grown from the seeds of their hybrids in order to assess the degree of affinity of the descendants, then it is easy to see how uncertain the assessment would be, since for 7 differing traits the developmental series contains 16,384 individuals under 2187 different forms.
parent-species = Stammarten Both Bateson and Sherwood have “original stocks”; see p. 5, s. 10.
the degree of affinity = des Verwandtschafts-Grades The manuscript originally had ihres (“their”), which was then replaced by des. Bateson has “grade of relationship”, Sherwood “degree of relationship”. Verwandtschaft literally means affinity in the sense of kinship or parentage, however. Since all hybrid offspring from a crossing experiment enjoy the same degree of kinship with the parental strains crossed, Verwandtschaft is probably used metaphorically here to refer to overall similarity due to some hidden cause. Just as the English “affinity”, the German Verwandtschaft was used in chemistry (as in the title of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s famous novel Die Wahlverwandtschaften) but also in natural history where it referred to relationships of overall similarity that plants and animals exhibit in the so-called “natural system”; see. e.g., Carl Friedrich Gärtner, Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich (Stuttgart: Hering, 1849), pp. 95–96, who uses the concept of “elective affinity” (Wahlverwandtschaft) to explain why different species have a more or less pronounced capacity to hybridise and produce offspring with each other. Darwin discusses “systematic affinity” (systematische Affinität) in the chapter he dedicated to hybrids in Origin of Species and defined it as “resemblance between species in structure and in constitution” (Ähnlichkeit verschiedener Arten in organischer Bildung und Thätigkeit); see Charles R. Darwin, On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life, 3rd ed. (London: John Murray, 1861), p. 279, and Charles R. Darwin, 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), p. 285.
differing = differirende See p. 7, s. 3.
developmental series = Entwicklungsreihe See p. 17, s. 6.
forms = Formen See p. 3, s. 8.