Page "Mendelian inheritance" Paragraph 2

Mendel's conclusions were largely ignored.

Although they were not completely unknown to biologists of the time, they were not seen as generally applicable, even by Mendel himself, who thought they only applied to certain categories of species or traits.

A major block to understanding their significance was the importance attached by 19th-century biologists to the apparent blending of inherited traits in the overall appearance of the progeny, now known to be due to multigene interactions, in contrast to the organ-specific binary characters studied by Mendel.

In 1900, however, his work was " re-discovered " by three European scientists, Hugo de Vries, Carl Correns, and Erich von Tschermak.

The exact nature of the " re-discovery " has been somewhat debated: De Vries published first on the subject, mentioning Mendel in a footnote, while Correns pointed out Mendel's priority after having read De Vries's paper and realizing that he himself did not have priority.

De Vries may not have acknowledged truthfully how much of his knowledge of the laws came from his own work, or came only after reading Mendel's paper.

Later scholars have accused Von Tschermak of not truly understanding the results at all.