Es könnte sich bald die eine, bald die andere Verwandtschaft mehr geltend machen, je nachdem der Zufall dem Beobachter diese oder jene Formen in grösserer Anzahl in die Hand spielt.
Sometimes one, sometimes the other affinity could assert itself more strongly, depending on how chance deals some forms or other in a greater quantity into the hand of the observer.
affinity = Verwandtschaft See previous sentence.
forms = Formen See p. 3, s. 8.
quantity = Anzahl See p. 3, s. 8.
deals = spielt Bateson has “presented”, Sherwood formulates “depending on whether the observer found, by chance, a larger number of this or of that form”. Mendel is using the language of card games here.