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Horticulture: the font for the baptism of genetics

Nature Reviews Genetics volume 1, pages 65–70 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

This year marks the centenary of the rediscovery of the laws of heredity, and their introduction to the English-speaking world. Here I introduce the main events and the characters who figure in this story before turning to the task of this essay — to ask why it was that support in England for the emerging science of genetics, or Mendelism as it was then called, came chiefly from horticulture, and was only belatedly accepted into the mainstream of British academic biology.

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Figure 1: William Bateson, the apostle of Mendelism in Britain (left) and Maxwell Masters, editor of the Gardeners' Chronicle (right).
Figure 2: John Dominy and the first orchid hybrid he created, Calanthe dominii.

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Acknowledgements

This paper is based on a talk prepared for a meeting of the historical section of the Institute of Biology. It is a pleasure to thank the organizers, Dr Michael Buttolph and Dr Brian Ford, for enabling me to present the paper there. I also thank Angela Todd, Assistant Archivist, and Charlotte Tancin, Librarian, of the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation, Pittsburgh, and Helen Ward, Archivist of the Royal Horticultural Society, London, for their invaluable assistance.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of the History and Philosophy of Science, 1017 Cathedral of Learning, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, 15260, Pennsylvania, USA

    Robert C. Olby

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  1. Robert C. Olby
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Further Information

Mendelweb

Genetics timeline

Mendel's 1865 paper “Experiments in plant hybridzation.”

Galton's 1898 paper “A diagram of heredity.”

Bateson's 1899 paper “Hybridization and cross-breeding as a method of scientific investigation.”

Bateson's 1900 paper “Problems of heredity as a subject for horticultural investigation.”

Bateson's 1902 book “Mendel's Principles of Heredity, a Defencerdquo;

The Royal Horticultural Society of London

Robert Olby's homepage

Encyclopedia of Life Sciences

Gregor Mendel

Glossary

BIOMETRY

The study of biology using quantitative, statistical methods.

BREED TRUE

When individuals breed true their characteristics are reproduced faithfully in their offspring.

BLENDING AND NON-BLENDING

Where there exists a gradation in the expression of an hereditary trait in the individuals of a population, the variation is termed continuous and the inheritance is blending — for example, height in humans. Where there is no such gradation, but an abrupt change from one state of the trait to another, the variation is termed discontinuous and its inheritance is non-blending — for example, round or wrinkled peas.

CYTOLOGY

The study of cells, the units of the tissues studied by the histologist.

HYBRIDIZATION

Formerly used to refer to the crossing of pure species, whereas cross-breeding referred to the crossing of varieties and races. This distinction was still in use when the RHS held its conferences on the subject.

LAMARCKIANS

Those who held that adaptive variations are the result of the action of the environment in directly modifying both the organism and its hereditary constitution. In the 1890s Lamarckians sought to promote experimental investigations in support of their case.

MASS SELECTION

Practised in maize breeding, where the best ears of corn were selected and their seeds mixed for sowing.

MUTABILITY

The rate of production of mutations of any kind by an organism or associated with a given chromosome.

RECURRENT MUTATIONS

Identical mutations that appear independently are called recurrent mutations. The problem with measuring the rate of recurrent mutation from experiments was the rarity of the events.

TERATOLOGY

The study of malformation in animals and plants.

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Olby, R. Horticulture: the font for the baptism of genetics. Nat Rev Genet 1, 65–70 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/35049583

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