DISCOVERED by Gregor Mendel in about 1856-1863. Mendel conducted experiments in plant hybridization, COLLECTING the results of cross-fertilizing hundreds of edible pea plants. The results from Mendel s experiments confirmed his ideas about heredity: the law of segregation, which has BECOME known as Mendel s First Law, and the law of independent ASSORTMENT, also known as Mendel s SECOND Law.