ESCHAEA. 359 



This is one of the things of which it is not easy to give 

 a person an idea, either by drawing or by verbal descrip- 

 tion. "Were a cake of ash-colour to be kneaded out broad 

 and thin, and wrapped up in many winding folds leaving 

 numerous caverns, and then baked or allowed to dry and 

 become hard, something might be formed resembling our 

 Eschara. And yet, after reading descriptions and seeing 

 figures, I found that I had formed an incorrect idea of it. 

 I had no notion that it was so great a thing. Mr. Couch 

 has seen a specimen which measured seven feet four inches 

 in circumference, and a foot and three-quarters in height. 

 This was a monster ; but one the size of a boy's head is not 

 uncommon. The first I saw was at Mrs. Gulson's, Ex- 

 mouth, and Miss Cutler, who was present, said, when I 

 came to see her next day at Budleigh Salterton, she would 

 have some Escharce for me ; and certainly she kept her pro- 

 mise, for when I arrived I found that Mr. Templar and Mr. 

 Harris had been out, and had got ready for me, not a hand- 

 ful, or a hatful, or a pocketful, but absolutely a large wash- 

 ing-tubful of living Eschara foliacea ! 



"When living, it is a delicate flesh-colour, which turns 

 to a light brown in death. It is a very thin and foliaceous 

 species, resembling a sheet of paper, waved into various 



