Gregor Mendel was the first person to trace the characteristics of successive generations of a living thing. His theories of heredity based on his work with pea plants were so brilliant and unprecedented at the time they appeared that it took thirty-four years for the rest of the scientific community to catch up to them. The short monograph, "Experiments with Plant Hybrids," in which Mendel described how traits were inherited, has become one of the most enduring and influential publications in the history of science.