Wäre der Einfluss des Keimsackes auf die Pollenzelle nur ein äusserer, wäre demselben blos die Rolle einer Amme zugetheilt, dann könnte der Erfolg einer jeden künstlichen Befruchtung kein anderer sein, als dass die entwickelte Hybride ausschliesslich der Pollenpflanze gleich käme, oder ihr doch sehr nahe stände.
If the influence of the germ sack on the pollen cell was only external, if the role of a wet nurse was only assigned to the same, then the success of each artificial fertilisation could be nothing else than that the developed hybrid resembled the pollen plant exclusively, or at least came to stand close to it.
germ sack = Keimsackes Bateson has “egg cell”, Sherwood “germinal cell”. According to Stephan Endlicher and Franz Unger, Grundzüge der Botanik (Wien: Gerold, 1843) the Keim- or Embryosack consists of a cell that starts to grow around the egg cell before it is fertilized (op. cit., p. 287). Endlicher and Unger attacked Matthias Jacob Schleiden’s (1804–1881) theory that the plant embryo was actually contained in the pollen cell, and that it was the tissue surrounding the pollen tube that fertilized it (op. cit. p. 295). Mendel may be thinking of this peculiar version of preformationism.
wet nurse = Amme Bateson has “nurse”, Sherwood “foster mother”.
success = Erfolg Bateson has “result”, Sherwood “outcome”; see p. 7, s. 9.