Mendel's program for the hybrization of apple trees

Abstract

According to Iltis,l Gregor Mendel, besides experimenting with peas, also devoted a good deal of time to the hybridization of fruit trees, vegetables, and flowers, raising the resulting seedlings with utmost care and sometimes grafting them on older trees. Iltis also refers to the notes in Mendel's own handwriting in John, Lukas, and Oberdieck's illustrated Handbuch der Obstkunde. In searching for all the documents connected with this activity of Mendel, we have found conclusive evidence that he was not only carrying out his hybridizing experiments with flowers, but also with different kinds of vegetables, and especially with fruit trees. KMiwanek,2 describing the history of the Pomicultural, Wine-Growing, and Horticultural Societies in Brno in 1898, mentions that Mendel was interested in improving different kinds of fruit trees and flowers by hybridization and that he was successful with some pommes and with fuchsia. The article in memory of Gregor Mendel, published in 1884 by the Horticultural Section of the Moravian and Silesian Agricultural Society, informs us that he took part in an exhibition of vegetables as early as 1859, and that his exhibition attracted attention. As an active member of the Horticulture Section he supported the organization of regular exhibitions of fruit, vegetables and flowers in Brno and used to offer prizes for the