the form abc = sie The reference of the pronoun sie is ambiguous: It can refer to the “form abc”, but also to “transformation” in the previous sentence. Sherwood assumes the latter in her translation, Bateson proposes the same reading as we do.

most closely related = nächst verwandten Bateson has “nearest akin”, Sherwood “closest related”. These would be forms that are “hybrid” (or heterozygous, as we would say today) with respect to only one of the three factors A, B, and C, and in that sense “closest” to the form abc which is homozygous throughout. This has not necessarily to do with any actual genealogical “closeness”. Since self-fertilisation is involved, all plants of the same generation are genealogically related to each other in the same degree. It has rather to do with the taxonomic sense of Verwandtschaft (“affinity”; see p. 39, s. 7). In his description of “transformation experiments” (Umwandlungsversuche), Mendel states explicitly that fertilisation should be carried out on forms among the descendants of hybrids that are “closest” to the “species” aimed at; see p. 43, s. 3.

conjunctions = Verbindungen See p. 10, s. 14.