Maned Mushroom. Fig. 13.
(Coprinus comatus.)374.
This fungus should be gathered for the table when the gills are white or just changing to pink, and before they are black, in which latter state (as the plant is ultimately deliquescent), it is unfit for food. If I had my choice, I think there is no species I should prefer before this one; it is singularly rich, tender, and delicious. Those found growing amongst short grass, on lawns, or by roadsides, are best; there is one form of it which grows in dirty, sticky places, in brickfields, dustyards, &c., that I should not like to recommend. When gathered in a rich pasture, it is of snowy whiteness, the top being somewhat fleshy, cylindrical, and broken up into white clothy patches; there is a white, powdery, fragile ring round the hollow stem, which is soon broken, and falls away.
Coprinus comatus—the “Agaric of Civilization”—is common in all the London parks in October. A closely-allied species, found at the base of old stumps and palings, and on the ground (C. atramentarius), is sometimes eaten. I have not tried it, but Mr. Penrose and several friends have a word to say in its favour.