One of the most influential and important scientific works ever written, the 1865 paper "Experiments in Plant Hybridisation" was all but ignored in its day, and its author, Austrian priest and scientist Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884), died before seeing the dramatic long-term impact of his work, which was rediscovered at the turn of the 20th century and is now considered foundational to modern genetics. A simple, eloquent description of his 1856-1863 study of the inheritance of traits in pea plants-Mendel analyzed 29,000 of them-this is essential reading for biology students and readers of science history.