BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 345 



Notes on the Botany of the Pyrenees, in a letter to the Editor, 

 from Richard Spruce, Esq. 



( Continued from p. 142.) 



I proceeded up the Vallee d'Ossau as far as Louvie, by the 

 Eaux-Boimes' diligence, and from thence walked the remain- 

 ing ten miles to Laruns, a little town, about half-way between 

 the Eaux-Bonnes and the Eaux-Chaudes, where I had de- 

 cided on taking up my quarters, with a view to avoiding the 

 crowd of fashionables at these two watering-places. A little 

 before arriving at Louvie begin the first range of the Pyre- 

 nees and the forests of box-trees which form so striking a 

 feature in those mountains. In my walk up the valley, I 

 gathered Leskea attenuata, Hypnum abietinum and rugulosum, 

 three mosses which are almost constantly found in company, 

 Barbula vinealis, Orthotrichum stramineum,Scc, besides Hera- 

 cleum Pyrenacium, the pretty Melica ciliata, and a few 

 other plants. 



The little hamlet of Bages (commune of Beost), which 

 stands on the hill-side to the left of Laruns, is the residence 

 of Pierre Gaston-Sacaze, the celebrated shepherd-botanist. 

 I had letters to him from Mr. Bentham and Dr. Dufour, and 

 the following morning I walked up to deliver them. As I 

 approached the house, I recognised on the neighbouring walls, 

 and especially in the little garden through which I passed, 

 several alpines, which had been transported thither by the 

 hand of Gaston. There was the Lithospermum Gastoni (his 

 °v>n plant, as he proudly called it), a new Er odium, lately 

 distinguished by Dr. Bubagni, and named after its finder, 

 «• Manescau, the present Mayor of Pau, Erodium Manes- 

 cavi ; several Saxifrages, Sedums, &c. Gaston himself is a 

 fi ne specimen of the peasantry of the Vallee d'Ossau ; tall, 

 not handsome, but with thoughtful, intelligent features. His 

 story is well known, even in England, from the interesting 

 account given of him by Mrs. Ellis in her book on the 

 Pyrenees. The little I have to add has been gleaned from 



