  We have studied the stellar and interstellar environments of two luminous
X-ray sources and five ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) in order to gain
insight into their nature. Archival Hubble Space Telescope images were used to
identify the optical counterparts of the ULXs Ho IX X-1 and NGC 1313 X-2, and
to make photometric measurements of the local stellar populations of these and
the luminous source IC 10 X-1. We obtained high-dispersion spectroscopic
observations of the nebulae around these seven sources to search for He II
lambda-4686 emission and to estimate the expansion velocities and kinetic
energies of these nebulae. Our observations did not detect nebular He II
emission from any source, with the exception of LMC X-1; this is either because
we missed the He III regions or because the nebulae are too diffuse to produce
He II surface brightnesses that lie within our detection limit. We compare the
observed ionization and kinematics of the supershells around the ULXs Ho IX X-1
and NGC 1313 X-2 with the energy feedback expected from the underlying stellar
population to assess whether additional energy contributions from the ULXs are
needed. In both cases, we find insufficient UV fluxes or mechanical energies
from the stellar population; thus these ULXs may be partially responsible for
the ionization and energetics of their supershells. All seven sources we
studied are in young stellar environments and six of them have optical
counterparts with masses >~7 M_sun; thus, these sources are most likely
high-mass X-ray binaries.
