Original: By a quirk of history Correns was a student of Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli, a renowned botanist with whom Mendel corresponded about his work with peas but who failed to understand how significant Gregor Mendel's work was.
Simplified: By a quirk of history Correns was a student of Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli, a renowned botanist with whom Mendel corresponded about his work with peas but who failed to understand how significant Mendel's work was.