HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



iSi 



with ovate entire leaves, and small white flowers ; 

 Hutchinsia alpina (R. Br.) ; Armeria alpina (Willd.), 

 very like A. maritima, but with larger heads and 

 flowers a brighter rose colour; Linaria alpina (L.) ; 

 Sisymbrium pinnatafidum (DC.) ; Oreochloa disticha, 

 a pretty little grass, like a Sesleria ; Luzula spadicea 

 (DC), a common alpine species ; L. pediformis 

 (DC), a rare plant, like a large L. spicata ; Veronica 

 alpina (L.) ; Carex pyrenaica, a little sedge, with a 

 single spike of a brownish colour, and three stigmas 

 to the fruit ; and Poa minor (Gaud.). 



After climbing for nearly three hours, the path 

 appears to be about to end in a cul-de-sac of rocky 

 precipice, when suddenly turning a corner to the 

 left the Port de Venasque itself appears, a narrow 

 opening in the rock-wall, at the summit of the 

 ridge. The Port is only fourteen feet wide, and 

 through this natural doorway, one passes from 

 France into Spain, the boundary being marked 

 by an iron cross. At this point, the first view of 

 Spain bursts on the sight, a wild sea of barren rocky 

 mountain tops, prominent among which, and only 

 separated by the intervening valley d'Etangs, is the 

 Maladetta, the monarch of the Pyrenees, (11,600 

 feet), which viewed from this point (8100 feet) does 

 not appear very much higher : it is a huge mass of 

 mountain, with glaciers near the summit and black 

 peaks of rock sticking up here and there out of the 

 snow and ice. The view on the Spanish side is 

 much wilder and grander than that on the French 

 one, the mountains [being higher, more rocky, and 

 barer. On the rocks in the Port, I found a densely 

 glandular dark green little Saxifrage, S. mixta (Lap.) 

 in very small quantity. A little way down the path 

 on the Spanish side, there is a path leading to the 

 right, up to the summit of the Pic de Sauvegarde, 

 (9164 feet), from which may be seen what is said to 

 be the finest view in the whole range. It is only an 

 hour's walk from the Port/and having plenty of time, 

 I decided to try it, and was amply repaid for the 

 trouble by a truly magnificent view. I could see 

 Luchon lying far below in the valley, and in the blue 

 distance the plains of France stretching away as far 

 as the eye could reach ; immediately beneath were 

 three deep indigo-blue mountain lakelets, whose 

 waters sparkled in the bright sunlight. Turning 

 round to the Spanish side, instead of the verdant 

 valleys and plains of France, the picture of wild 

 desolation forms a striking contrast, as the eye ranges 

 over the bare mountains of Catalonia and Aragon, 

 extending for miles away in the distance. After 

 resting awhile at the top enjoying the view, and 

 replenishing the inner man, I started to go down again, 

 finding on the way Leontodon pyrenaicus (Gou.), 

 Asterocarpus sesamoides (Gay), which grew in dense 

 patches by the path ; it is a small resedaceous plant, 

 with a procumbent much-branched stem and densely- 

 flowered spikes ; Veronica bellidioides (L.) ; Ranun- 

 culus pyreneus (L.) a small plant with white flowers 



and linear leaves; Angelica pyrenca (Spr.), Armeria 

 alpina (Willd.) ; and lastly an old Scotch friend, 

 Giuzphalium supinum. Leaving the Port de Venasque 

 to the west, the path leading to the Port de la Picade 

 passes along the Spanish side of the ridge for about 

 two miles, then turns north and crosses by another 

 opening into France again, then going along the 

 narrow edge of the ridge, here not above six feet 

 wide, with precipices on both sides, it descends to 

 the grassy Col de Mountjoie, almost the only large 

 stretch of mountain pasture that I saw in the Pyrenees, 

 in this respect differing greatly from the Alps. On 

 the Col de Mountjoie I found Carduus carlinoides 

 (Gou.) ; Senecio adonidifolius (Lois.) ; Gentiana acaulis 

 (L.) ; Festuca spadicea (L.) ; Gentiana lutea (L.), the 

 medicinal gentian, a large plant, three to five feet 

 high, with whorls of yellow flowers, and large 

 ribbed sessile leaves ; and Asphodelus alius (L.), 

 (Liliacea:), with dense verbascum-Iike spikes of white 

 flowers, and linear leaves. By the path down to the 

 Hospice de Luchon (which by this route is ap- 

 proached from the upper end of the valley of the 

 Picque, from which valley the path to the Port de 

 Venasque goes off at a right angle), I found Dianthus 

 deltoides (L.), var. glaucus ; Avena montana (Vill.) ; 

 Biscutella laevigata (L.), a crucifer with spectacle- 

 shaped pods, and yellow flowers ; Genista sagittalis 

 (L.), a species with winged stems ; and Viola coruuta 

 (L.), with lilac-blue, long-spurred flowers, and 

 cordate leaves, not unlike V. lutea, var. amcena, in 

 habit and size of flowers. By the time I reached the 

 Hospice it was about 7 p.m., and I was getting 

 pretty tired, and so did not trouble about looking out 

 on the way back to Luchon, where I arrived a little 

 after 9 p.m. well satisfied with the day's work. The 

 next day was to be the last one in the Pyrenees, and 

 I decided to' go to see the Lac d'Oo, a small lake up 

 in the mountains, ten miles from Luchon. The day 

 proved very hot, and being tired with the previous 

 day's walk, I did not get there till about 3 p.m. 

 The first six miles, as far as the village of Oo, is 

 pretty, but not very striking ; the road passes through 

 several villages, but after passing the village of Oo, 

 it enters the Val d'Oo, a very fine one, with the snow 

 peaks near the Port de Venasqne at the head of it. 

 Three miles up this valley the road ends, and a path 

 winds up a steep slope, through a pine-wood, till at the 

 top of a kind of dam across the valley, one reaches 

 the Lac d'Oo, a most beautiful lake surrounded by 

 frowning precipices, and with a fine waterfall 800 

 feet high at the head, and scattered pines clothing 

 the ledges of the rocks. On the way up to the lake 

 I found Meconopsis cambrica (Vig.) ; Reseda glauca 

 (L.) ; Cochlearia pyrenaica (DC), a sub-species of 

 C. officinalis ; Sisymbrium acutangalum (DC.) ; and 

 Campanula patula (L.), this last not uncommon in 

 the hedges all through the part I visited. Above the 

 lake grew the Pyrenean iris in plenty ; Asphodelus 

 all/us (L.), here on account of the lower 'elevation, 



