132 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



I got into the mist and the view vanished ; in a few 

 miles the Col d'Aubisque was reached, 5610 ft. ; and 

 now began a series of finds enough to make any 

 botanist's mouth water. First, in grassy spots, 

 Trifolium alpinum (L.), Hieracium auricula (L.) ; 

 Carex Davalliana (Sm. ) ; Tofieldia calyculata ( Wahl.) , 

 a larger species than our Tofieldia ; then, on rocks 

 above the road, Reseda glauca (L.), a common species 

 in the Pyrenees, but peculiar to them, it has finely 

 divided glaucous leaves ; Sideritis hyssopifolia (L. f.), 

 a yellow-flowered labiate ; Hieracium saxatile (Vill.) ; 

 Carex frigida (All.) ; Saxifraga aizoon ; S. muscoides ; 

 S. cotyledon (L.), the last a splendid plant, with 

 curious calcareous seratures round the thick fleshy 

 leaves, which form a dense rosette at the crown of 

 the root ; Helianthemum vulgare, var. tomentosum 

 (Dun.); Asperula hirta (Ram.), another Pyrenean 

 plant, like a small Galium, with flesh-coloured 

 flowers and ciliate leaves; Erinus alpinus (L.), 

 plentiful; Rosa fyrenaica (Gou.) ; Cardamine resedi- 

 folia (L.), a very small species, about 2 in. high ; 

 Antennaria leontopodium (Gart.), very plentiful 

 here, but not observed again ; this is the famous 

 Swiss "Edelweiss"; Nigritella angustifolia (Rich.), 

 ( = Orchis nigra), a little orchid with dark crimson 

 flowers ; Armaria ciliata (L.) ; Valeriana montana 

 (L.) ; Sempervivum Boutignianum (G. and G.), a 

 very pretty, rose-flowered Sempervivum ; Salix pyre- 

 naica (Gou.), a low, silky species ; Trifolium badium 

 (L.), with largish brown-yellow heads; Kernera 

 saxatilis, a crucifer with white flowers, and roundish 

 pods, placed by Eentham and Hooker under Coch- 

 learia ; Cryptogramma crispa, Polypodium calcareum ; 

 Betonica alopecuros (L.) ; Hypericum Burseri (Sp.) ; 

 Gypsophila repens (L.), a caryophyllaceous plant, like 

 a small Silene ; and Rumex arifolius (L.), very like 

 R. scutatus. Past the Col d'Aubisque the road 

 turns to the right, past the head of another valley on 

 to the rocky side of the Pic de Gabizos, and here it 

 enters the department of Hautes-Pyrenees. The 

 road here is a magnificent piece of work, having been 

 blasted out of the steep smooth rocky slope of the 

 mountain for more than a mile, and in one place 

 passing through a tunnel in, the solid rock ; at some 

 distance off it looks like a shelf cut in the side of the 

 mountain. The rocks here abound in rare plants, 

 •but as it was now five o'clock, and I had some six 

 miles to walk to Arrens, the nearest village, before I 

 could get anything to eat, I had not much time to go 

 over them ; however, I got a few rare ones, e.g. 

 Potentilla alchcmilloidcs (Lap.), the loveliest Poten- 

 tilla I ever saw ; it has leaves like Alchcmilla 

 conjuncta, only rather smaller, beautifully silvery- 

 white and silky beneath, with a silver edge showing 

 above, the flowers are white, and achenes silky ; 

 Lychnis pyrenaica (Berg.), with glaucous ovate 

 leaves, and smallish white flowers ; Genista hispanica 

 (L.), very like a small Ulex ; Ononis striata (Gou.), 

 a minute yellow-flowered species ; Linaria origanifolia 



(Ait.), var. grandiftora, a purple almost bell-shaped> 

 flower with a patch of yellow on the one side - r 

 Onobrychis montana (Gaud.) ; Antirrhinum sempcr- 

 vireus, a small white-flowered species with grey 

 fleshy leaves ; Silene Saxifraga (L.), with greenish 

 flowers ; Dcthawia (= Wallrolkia) tenuifolia (Endl.),. 

 a fine-leaved Umbellifer ; Potentilla fruticosa (L.); 

 Aquilegia pyrenaica (DC), very fine, with flowers 

 much larger than in A. vulgaris, and lastly, in fruit 

 only, a most curious-looking Ranunculus {Ranunculus 

 thora, L.), with a simple, very wiry stem, and a 

 single large reniform leaf in the middle ; it has, as I 

 afterwaids ascertained, a yellow flower. The shades 

 of night drew rapidly on, as I descended the long zig- 

 zagsjwhich carry the road down the 1840 feet from the 

 Col de Courel to Arrens, in the Val d'Azun. Before 

 reaching the bottom, dark clouds gathered, and in. 

 the pitchy darkness, the very road beneath my feet 

 was invisible, except when lit up by occasional flashes 

 of lightning : at last at 9 p.m. I reached the village, 

 and had to ask a woman to show me the inn, for I 

 should never have found it in the darkness. A few 

 minutes after getting in, the rain began to come 

 down in torrents, so I was only just in time. After 

 a good supper of chicken, chops, and coffee, (about a. 

 teacupful of strong black coffee, and a pint jug of 

 boiling milk, and a basin to drink it out of), I was 

 glad to get between the sheets, after the best day I 

 ever had except one, and that was on the St. 

 Gotthard and Furka passes, in the Alps of Switzer- 

 land. Of course the plants, I have mentioned do not 

 include all I saw, but only the rarer, and non- 

 British plants. Next day rose bright, sunny and 

 clear, after the storm of the preceding day, and I set 

 off to walk to Pierrefitte, at the junction of the two 

 valleys leading to Luz and Cauterets, a walk of only 

 twelve miles ; eight down the Val d'Azun, and four 

 up the Argeles valley. Before leaving Arrens, I had a 

 look at the curious old church with its battlemented 

 wall around the churchyard, and the chapel of the 

 Virgin on the little isolated hill of Poey-le-Houn, 

 or Hill of the Fountain. The walk down the Val 

 d'Azun was through a broad fertile valley, with chest- 

 nut, walnut, and cherry-trees bordering the road, and 

 in the adjoining fields. In the south of France, and 

 in the warmer valleys of the Pyrenees, the maize is 

 extensively cultivated, to a much greater extent than, 

 the ordinary corn, and looks very handsome, with its 

 broad, deep green leaves and branched spikes of male 

 flowers. Along the road from Arrens to Argeles, on 

 the banks and walls by the roadside, Sedum miens 

 (L.), .£. cepa-a (L.), a brittle, much-branched, broad- 

 leaved, and white-flowered species, S. micranthum 

 (Bast.), .S. dasyphyllum (L.), and S. albescens (Haw.), 

 are plentiful. Also, in less quantity, Linaria pyre- 

 naica (DC), a sub-species of Z. supi'na, from which 

 it is distinguished by the rather larger flowers with, 

 greenish veins on the corolla. After dining in Ar- 

 geles, a fairish-sized town at the junction of the 



