From C. L. Brace 14 November 1867
Hastings-on-Hudson
Nov 14th | 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
CD annotations
Footnotes
Bibliography
Bailey, Liberty Hyde and Bailey, Ethel Zoe. 1976. Hortus third: a concise dictionary of plants cultivated in the United States and Canada. Revised and expanded by the staff of the Liberty Hyde Bailey Hortorium. New York: Macmillan. London: Collier Macmillan.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Dexter, Ralph W. 1986. Historical aspects of the Calaveras skull controversy. American Antiquity 51: 365–9.
Dupree, Anderson Hunter. 1959. Asa Gray, 1810–1888. Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University.
Grayson, Donald K. 1983. The establishment of human antiquity. New York: Academic Press.
Junker, Thomas. 1989. Darwinismus und Botanik. Rezeption, Kritik und theoretische Alternativen im Deutschland des 19. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart: Deutscher Apotheker Verlag.
Montgomery, William M. 1988. Germany. In The comparative reception of Darwinism, with a new preface, edited by Thomas F. Glick. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Nowak, Ronald M. 1999. Walker’s mammals of the world. 6th edition. 2 vols. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Nyhart, Lynn K. 1995. Biology takes form. Animal morphology and the German universities, 1800–1900. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.
Times atlas: ‘The Times’ atlas of the world. Comprehensive edition. 9th edition. London: Times Books. 1992.
Whitney, Josiah Dwight. 1866. Notice of a human skull recently taken from a shaft near Angels, Calaveras County. [Read 16 July 1866.] Proceedings of the California Academy of Natural Sciences 3 (1867): 277–8. [Reprinted in American Journal of Science and Arts 43 (1867): 265–7.]
Summary
Distribution of plants.
Removal of posterior molars a common dental practice in America [see Descent 1: 27].
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5679
- From
- Charles Loring Brace
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Hastings-on-Hudson N.Y.
- Source of text
- DAR 80: B154–5
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp †
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5679,” accessed on 30 November 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5679.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 15