From C. L. Brace   14 November 1867

My dear Sir:

While in the mountains—the Adirondacks of New York¹—this summer, I came across a “capital fact” bearing on the distribution of plants—

In that region, when the forest (of beech, birch, sugar-maple & pine) is burnt, there springs up immediately a thick grove of Wild Cherry (P. Pennsylvanica, I think).² The foresters’ explanation is that these forests for square miles around were some thirty or forty years ago, the favorite roosting-places of the Wild Pigeon who came here by the millions. Their favorite food was the Wild Cherry, & they fed their young on it, so that the soil was thick-sown with the seeds, for miles about—

I am so much rejoiced to hear that you are taking up the anthropoid part of your great subject—³

With regard to change of type in America, the dentists say it is becoming almost universally the practice to remove some of the back-teeth in children, as the jaw does not seem large enough for the normal number of teeth,⁴ & the front are made projecting— Two of my children, though their mother is from the Old World,— —have had to lose sound back-teeth for this reason— The American monkeys I believe have more than the normal number of teeth—⁵

I hope soon to send you an article on the reception of your theory by the Germans—Haeckel, Vogt, Büchner & others—

How little they have contributed to the Science of the subject!⁶

Whitney showed me a skull found in California which was as low as the Neanderthal—⁷

We are daily expecting Dr & Mrs Gray—⁸

Believe me dear Sir | Yours with high respect | C. L. Brace

C. R. Darwin Esq