Nach der Meinung der Fachgelehrten indessen gehört die Mehrzahl der Species Pisum sativum an, während die übrigen bald als Unterarten von P. sativum, bald als selbstständige Arten angesehen und [b]eschrieben wurden, wie P. quadratum, P. saccharatum, P. umbellatum.
According to the opinion of specialized scholars, however, the majority belong to the species Pisum sativum, whilst the remainder have sometimes been considered and described as subspecies of P. sativum, and sometimes as autonomous species, such as P. quadratum, P. saccharatum, P. umbellatum.
species = Species Instead of Art, as in the preceding sentence, Mendel is using the Latin species, probably in order to highlight that he is speaking of "good" species in the technical sense of taxonomists, where species occupy a certain rank in the Linnaean hierarchy (cf. p. 39, s. 3). Bronn used the same expedient in his translation of Darwin’s Origin, and explicitly referred to Species as a “technical term” (Kunstausdruck) in a passage Mendel marked by drawing a line on the margin; see 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), Mendel Museum, Collection of the Augustinian Abbey, p. 64. In our translation, we indicate Mendel’s use of the Latin species by italicising the term.
subspecies = Unterarten This term was introduced by German botanists in the late eighteenth century to distinguish between entirely accidental and more regularly occuring varieties, such as geographical races or hereditary variations; see M. V. Vinarski, “The Fate of the Subspecies Category in Zoological Systematics”, Biology Bulletin Reviews 5 (2015), pp. 395–404, here p. 396.
autonomous = selbstständig See p. 6, s. 1.
species = Arten See p. 6, s. 14.
described = [b]eschrieben The original printed text has geschrieben; we follow Mendel’s own correction in the offprint used for this translation.
P. sativum … P. quadratum, P. saccharatum, P. umbellatum These are Linnaean binominal names, as additionally highlighted in the manuscript by the use of Latin (rather than German) cursive script. They should therefore designate species. However, as Mendel states in this sentence, there was no agreement about their taxonomic rank. While there is no direct evidence to establish whom Mendel had in mind with his reference to “specialized scholars” (Fachgelehrte), the binomials can at least provide indirect evidence. All of the four species names mentioned in this sentence are listed as distinct species under the genus Pisum in Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach’s Flora germanica excursoria ex affinitate regni vegetabilis naturali disposit (Leipzig: Cnobloch, 1830–1833), vol. 2, pp. 532–533. The online-catalogue of the Moravian Library in Brno has a record for this book. By contrast, Ernst Gottlieb von Steudel’s Nomenclator botanicus (2nd ed., Stuttgart and Tübingen: Cotta, 1840–1841), vol. 2, p. 345, lists P. quadratum, P. saccharatum and P. umbellatum as synonyms under Pisum sativum, referring to Philipp Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary and unnamed “gardeners” (Hort[ulani]) as authors of these names. Miller, in turn, had already clearly expressed doubts about their taxonomic status: “There are a great variety of Garden Peas now cultivated in England, which are distinguished by the gardeners and seedsmen, and have their different titles; but a great part of these are only seminal variations, and if not very carefully managed, by taking away all those plants which have a tendency to alter before the seeds are formed, they will degenerate into their original state” (Gardener’s Dictionary, 8th ed., London: Rivington, 1768, PIS [unpag.]). One can clearly see in the instance of Pisum sativum that the problem of distinguishing species and varieties, which Mendel refers to in this paragraph, was a long-standing one, and had by no means been resolved by the adoption of Linnaean nomenclature. Mendel used the names P. quadratum, P. saccharatum, and P. umbellatum already in his annotations on Gärtner’s Versuche und Beobachtungen über die Bastarderzeugung im Pflanzenreich (Stuttgart: Hering, 1849, Mendel Museum, Collection of the Augustinian Abbey, back flyleaf and inside back cover) and he will use them further on in his paper to designate some of the varieties he has been working with (see p. 8, s. 2ff). Today, Pisum sativum is the accepted species name of the garden pea, while the validity of P. quadratum, P. saccharatum and P. umbellatum remains “unresolved”; see The Plant List (2010), Version 1.