Hugo de Vries (1848 - 1935)

    Dutch botanist Hugo de Vries performed plant hybridization experiments that replicated Gregor Mendel's results, obtained 3:1 hybrid ratios in several species of plants, and confirming Mendel's principles of Dominant & Recessive alleles, Segregation, and Independent Assortment. Carl Correns, who re-discovered Mendel's work at almost exactly the same moment, felt that de Vries initially had not given Mendel sufficient credit for his priority, and de Vries adjusted his acknowledgement in subsequent publication.

    de Vries subsequent work on the Evening Primrose Oenothera led him to advocate macromutations as a means of evolution. In fact, the sudden large changes he obtained were due to the species' peculiar system of chromosome pairing and not genetic changes.