Carl Nageli
(1817 - 1891)
Highly regarded in his day as an authority on
plant breeding, Nageli is now chiefly remembered in the history of
biology as a bump in the road to the understanding of heredity. As
Gregor Mendel's correspondent on the latter's experiments with
peas (Pisum), Nageli failed to understand or appreciate the
significance of Mendel's numerical work. He encouraged him instead
to work on a species of Hawkweed (Hieracium), which had an
unusual reproductive system in which Mendel's observations could
not be repeated.