Carl Correns (1864 - 1933)
German
botanist Carl Correns (1864 - 1933) was a student of Karl Nageli, with whom
Mendel had corresponded concerning his experiments with peas:
Correns was unaware of that work. He obtained numerical
results similar to Mendel in several species, including Maize
and Pisum, then rediscovered Mendel's papers, and
published his work with acknowledgement of Mendel's priority,
originality, and interpretations. He received an early paper
of Hugo de Vries
that failed to acknowledge Mendel. Correns immediately prepared his own report, “G.
Mendel’s Law Concerning the Behavior of the Progeny of
Varietal Hybrids.” He emphasized that Mendel had
already obtained the essential experimental results and
supplied their explanation, and observed that de Vries used Mendel’s
terms “dominant” and “recessive.” de Vries
acknowledged Mendel in a second paper that was submitted
before Correns’s response.
Correns'
emphasis on the "scientific romance" of Mendel's
rediscovery after 30 years helped
secure "Mendelism" its proper recognition. His
later research took him to Berlin-Dahlem,
where he became a founding Director of the Kaiser Wilhelm
Institute for Biology. His experiments with
variegated four-o’clock plants, Mirabilis
jalapa, helped establish the existence of
maternal, cytoplasmic inheritance,
and showed that
heredity encompassed additional mechanisms requiring
experimental explanation.
.