“No one will seriously maintain that in the open country the development of plants is ruled by other laws than in the garden bed,” Mendel said. “Here, as there, changes of type must take place if the conditions of life be altered, and the species possesses the capacity of fitting itself to its new environment.” But, he went on, by “fitting itself” he meant that the species undergoes a change in the gametes, through the units that pass on dominating and recessive traits in an evenhanded, random matter.
