Sollte eine Art A in eine andere B verwandelt werden, so wurden beide durch Befruchtung verbunden und die erhaltenen Hybriden abermals mit dem Pollen von B befruchtet; dann wurde aus den verschiedenen Abkömmlingen derselben jene Form ausgewählt, welche der Art B am nächsten stand und wiederholt mit dieser befruchtet, und sofort, bis man endlich eine Form erhielt, welche der B gleich kam und in ihren Nachkommen constant blieb.
If a species A was to be transformed into another species B, both were conjoined through fertilisation and the resulting hybrids were then fertilized with the pollen of B; then that form was selected from the various descendants, which was closest to species B and repeatedly fertilized with the latter, and so on, until finally a form was obtained which was equal to B and remained constant in its progeny.
Bateson changes the sentence to present tense in his translation, but Mendel uses the past tense to indicate that he is directly addressing the experiments that were performed by Kölreuter and Gärtner. We follow Sherwood in preserving the past tense.
If a species A… = Sollte eine Art A… Mendel uses the letters that Gärtner used as well in describing what “transformation experiments” are. Mendel’s description is more general, however, since he abstracts from the distinction that Gärtner drew between “ascending” (aufsteigenden) and “descending” (absteigenden) hybrids, depending on which species provided the pollen; see Carl Friedrich Gärtner, Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich (Stuttgart: Hering, 1849), p. 455–456. On the term “species” (Art), see p. 6, s. 14.
conjoined = verbunden Bateson has “united”, Sherwood “combined”; see p. 10, s. 14.
constant = constant See p. 5, s. 5.
offspring = Abkömmlinge See p. 9, s. 4.