348 BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 



a gorge called " la Coume,' 5 where we were mostly up to the 

 neck in box-bushes. It was too dry and exposed to produce 

 any Cryptogamia, and it was only after nearly two hours' 

 walking, when we reached the region of pines and the first 

 snow, that I began to fill my vasculum. Here the south 

 side of a ravine was strewed with decaying pine-trunks, 

 brought down by the avalanches and melting snows of former 

 years, and on them I reaped a rich harvest, especially of 

 Hepaticce. I recognised on the spot, Jungermannia curvi- 

 folia, Bantriensis, connivens, asplenioides, and some others, 

 all in fructification ; but I was most pleased to gather fine 

 fruit of Jung, exsecta, which has, I believe, never been seen 

 in England. Some trunks were nearly covered with Hypnum 

 Silesiacum, bearing fruit profusely, and I found along with it 

 Buxbaurnia indusiata, but very scarce. On stones in the 

 same place, were fruited Hypnum Halleri and Lejeunia calcarea. 

 My companion, not seeing much to interest him in the 

 mosses I was collecting, strayed so far ahead of me that 

 when I looked round for him he was out of sight and 

 hearing, and though we sought each other for four hours, 

 we met no more until we reached the foot of the mountain. 

 I continued my upward progress in the direction I supposed 

 he had taken and soon emerged on a plateau, called Las 

 Tosses (les pacages) de Gesque, where in summer a few 

 flocks find pasturage. In crossing this, I came upon large 

 patches of ground entirely covered with Gentiana acaulis and 

 verna, and Horminum Pyrenaicum. On attaining the rocks 

 called Pambecibe', at about three-fourths the whole height 

 of the mountain, where Dufour had indicated to me several 

 Lichens, I found them covered with snow, and perceived 

 that all further ascent would be useless. I gathered several 

 interesting plants in the vicinity of the melting snow, such 

 as Androsace villosa, Ranunculus Pyrenceus, Viola biflora, 

 Primula integrifolia, and Silene acaulis. The other plants 

 on the Pic de Ger, were Ranunculus Gouani, montanus and 

 Thora, Geum Pyrenaicum, Dryas octopetala, Silene quadrifida, 

 Hutchinsiu alpina, Dentaria pinnata and Aspidium Lonchilis. 



