_Coprinus comatus_
[Sidenote: =A plebeian toadstool=]
Upon a certain spot on the lawn of one of my neighbors, year after
year, without fail, there springs up a most singular crop. For the
first two seasons of its appearance it was looked upon with curious awe
by the proprietors of the premises, and usually ignominiously spurned
with the foot by the undiscriminating and destructive small boy. One
day I observed about five pounds of this fungus delicacy thus scattered
piecemeal about the grass, and my protest has since spared the annual
crop for my sole benefit. It usually makes its appearance in late
September, and continues in intermittent crops until November. A casual
observer happening upon a cluster of the young mushrooms might imagine
that he beheld a convention of goose eggs standing on end in the grass,
their summits spotted with brown.
[Illustration: _Coprinus comatus_]
_PLATE XVI_