Bagneres De Luchon, in the department of the Haute Garonne, is a gay town of some 5,000 inhabitants. A friend told me that he once suffered so much from the heat there in June, that he determined never to go to the Pyrenees again. We were there the second week in June, and we suffered more from rain and cold, and were very glad of a fire in the evening.
Except to the south, in the direction of the Porte de Venasque, one of the chief mule passes into Spain during summer, where there are fine snow-capped mountains, the scenery from the town is not grand, but it is within easy reach of the wildest parts of the Pyrenees.
It is the nearest town to the Maladetta, their highest point, in which the Garonne rises, and among whose rocks is one of the last strongholds of the ibex or bouquetin, the "wild goat" mentioned by Homer. Eagles and vultures are to be seen sailing about the sky near Luchon nearly every day, and bears, which in the Pyrenees are neither mythical nor formidable, descend to within a few miles of the town after wild strawberries, which abound there.
We heard of two female peasants lately gathering wild strawberries who were suddenly confronted with competitors for the spoil in the shape of a she bear and two cubs. It was doubtful whether man or beast was the more surprised. The cubs began to growl, but their dam gave both of them a box on the ears for their bad manners, and led them away. As for flowers, the neighborhood of Luchon has the reputation, perhaps not undeserved, of being the most flowery part of the Pyrenees.
We went the usual expeditions from the town, in spite of the weather, and I will try to remember what plants we noticed in each of them. The first trip was to the Vallee du Lys. In spite of the spelling, the name suggests lilies of the valley, but we are told that lys is an old word meaning water, and that the valley took its name from the number of cataracts, not from lilies, there.
However this may be, a lily grows there in great profusion, and was just coming into flower toward the middle of June. It is the Lis de St. Bruno (Anthericum liliastrum), a plant worthy of giving its name to a valley of which it is a characteristic feature. Still more conspicuous at the time when we were there were the Narcissus poeticus, abundant all round Luchon, but already past in the low meadows near the town, but higher up, at an elevation of about 4,000 ft., it was quite at its best, and whitened the ground over many acres.
I looked about for varieties, but failed to detect any special character by which it could be referred to any of the varietal names given in catalogues, and concluded that it was N. poeticus pure and simple. Pulmonarias were abundant along the road, as also in the whole region of the Pyrenees, the character of the leaves varying greatly, some being spotless, some full of irregular white patches, others with well defined round spots. They varied, too, from broad heart-shaped to narrow lanceolate, and I soon concluded that it was hopeless to attempt any division of the class founded upon the leaves.
Besides the beautiful flowers of Scabious mentioned before, a new feature in the meadows here was the abundance of Astrantia major. A pure white Hesperis matronalis was also common, but I saw no purple forms of it. Geranium phæum also grew everywhere in the fields, the color of the flower varying a good deal. Hepaticas were not so common by the roadside here as at Eaux Bonnes, but are generally distributed. Many of them have their leaves beautifully marbled, and I selected and brought away a few of the best, in hopes that they may keep this character. I was struck everywhere by the one-crowned appearance of the Hepaticas, as if in their second year from seed.
On the mountains, where they were still in flower, I did not find the colors mixed, but on one mountain they would be all white, on another all blue. I do not recollect to have seen any pink. Meconopsis cambrica is common in the Pyrenees. I observe that in Grenier's "French Flora" the color of the flower is given as "jaune orange," but I never saw it either in England or in France with orange flowers till I saw it covering a bank by the side of the road to the Vallee du Lys. I was too much struck by it to delay securing a plant or two, which was lucky, for when we returned every flower had been gathered by some rival admirers.
Another expedition from Luchon is to the Lac d'Oo. This, too, is famous for flowers; but especially so is a high valley called Val d'Esquierry, 2,000 ft. or 3,000 ft. above the village d'Oo, at which the carriage road ends. Botanists call this the garden of the Pyrenees, and, of course, I was most anxious to see it.