BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 537 



only flowering- plant gathered before reaching Gavarnie was 

 the beautiful Merendera Bulbocodium, Ramond, which covers 

 the moist meadows there with its crocus-like flowers, as 

 Colchicum autumnale does in some parts of England. 



We secured beds at the auberge, and ate a substantial lun- 

 cheon, after which we proceeded to explore the famous Cirque 

 of Gavarnie. It cost us an hour's walking to reach the entrance 

 to it, although from the immensity of its dimensions it had 

 appeared close at hand, and the night was fast closing in 

 when we passed the " Pont de Neige.'' On returning across 

 it, after gathering fine specimens of Geranium cinereum, with 

 which the ground was in some parts quite enamelled, Aqui- 

 legia Pyrenaica* Ramondia Pyrenaica, &c., there was just light 

 enough left to prevent our stepping into one of the crevasses, 

 and plunging into the furious Gave below, and we reached our 

 hotel between darkness and the twilight of the rising moon. 

 We rose the following morning at five, and after waiting a 

 most unreasonable time for breakfast, at length set out with 

 our guide to ascend to the Col d'Estaube, which lies eastward 

 of the Cirque. One of the principal objects of our search was 

 Ranunculus glacialis, which had been indicated to us as grow- 

 ing near the Col ; but We explored the " moraines" at the base 

 of two glaciers without seeing it, and I can scarcely believe it 

 exists there. We found several interesting plants which amply 

 repaid us for missing this ; such were Saponaria ccespitosa, 

 Arenaria purpurascens, Aronicum scorpioides, Gnaphalium 

 kontopodium, Veronica Nummularia, &c. The view from the 

 t-'ol is extremely grand. On the left, and westward from us, 

 the whole mass of the Vignemale, rising to the height of 

 11,000 English feet, stood exposed to view; and nearer to 

 Us > on the same side, the ramparts and towers of Gavarnie, 

 looking exactly like some gigantic Gothic castle— its portal, 

 the famous Breche de Roland, nearly on a level with the place 



1 do not see how this is to be kept apart from A. alpina, for I find the 

 8 Pur always more or less curved at the extremity ; and I consider it highly 

 Probable that both of them are merely alpine states of A. vulgaris. 



V OL. V. B K 



