Used with
permission of Maiken Naylor, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA,
http://ublib.buffalo.edu/libraries/units/sel/exhibits/stamps
Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884), an Austrian Augustinian monk and botanist, discovered the laws of heredity, and the basis of genetics, from his experiments with garden peas. His work, which was unknown to Darwin, supplied a mechanism for the inheritance of random variations. It was ignored during his lifetime and was not rediscovered until 1900.