XVI International Botanical Congess

In 1949 Edgar Anderson published his landmark Introgressive Hybridization. In this slim volume, Anderson summarized his important views on hybridization as an evolutionary mechanism as well as the observational and mathematical techniques necessary to study this phenomenon. From his graduate study under E.M. East at Harvard's Bussey Institution through work at the Missouri Botanical Garden and, briefly, the Arnold Arboretum, Anderson research, whether on Iris, Tradescantia, or Zea mays, always touched on this central concept. His 1953 article, Introgressive Hybridization is an illuminating attempt to show how his approach to studying the species problem and the dynamics of natural populations differed from those of Sewall Wright, R.A. Fisher, Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr, G. Ledyard Stebbins, and G.G. Simpson.