rooms, and one correspondent affirms that their flavor may be 
greatly improved by cooking one or two caps of the common 
mushroom with them. They are often utilized in the manufac- 
ture of catsup. 
Three species may be classed as edible. They are recogniza- 
ble by the color of the caps. 
Cap white or whitish, C. comatus. 
Cap gray or grayish-brown, C. atramentarius. 
Cap ochraceous or reddish-ochraceous, C. micaceus. 
The Shaggy coprinus or “Maned agaric,” Coprinus comatus, 
has the cap, when young, oblong or cylindrical. It is then much 
longer than broad, but it expands with age. Its general color is 
white or whitish, but it is 
adorned with fibrillose scales 
which are slightly colored, 
usually of a yellowish hue, 
and at the top is a yellowish, 
smooth surface, as if covered 
with a cuticle. The gills are 
at first very closely packed 
side by side and white, but 
with advancing age they sep- 
arate and pinkish or pur- 
plish tints appear, soon to 
change to black. The stem is 
white and hollow. In the 
young plant, it has a collar 
close to the appressed margin 
of the cap. It is slightly ad- 
herent or movable, and has 
generally disappeared by the 
time the plant is mature. 
The cap is one and a half to 
three inches long before ex- 
pansion, and the stem is three 
to five inches long. The 
plant is fragile and easily 
broken. It grows in rich, 
loose earth by roadsides, in 
Coprinus comatus, two-thirds size. pastures or waste places, and 
on dumping grounds about 
cities. It appears in autumn and may sometimes be found quite 
late in the season. 
“When young, it is very sapid and celicate;” “cooked quickly 
34 
