[Illustration: COPRINUS COMATUS.]
[Sidenote: =Inky deliquescence=]
If one of them is examined, it is seen to be a curious short-stemmed
mushroom which never fully expands (Plate 16), perhaps five inches
high, and whose surface is curiously decorated with shaggy patches.
In its early stages it is white and singularly egglike, but later
becomes brownish, its curved shaggy points finally changing to almost
black. The concealed gills are crowded and of equal length, at first
creamy white, but gradually changing through a whole gamut of pinks,
sepias, and browns until they become black, at which time the whole
substance of the cap melts on its elongated stalk--_deliquesces into
an unsightly inky paste, which besmears the grass_ and ultimately
leaves only the bare white stem standing in its midst, a peculiar
method of dissemination which distinguishes the group Coprinus, of
which it is the most conspicuous example. This is the "shaggy-mane"
mushroom, _Coprinus comatus_, the specific name signifying a wig--"from
the fancied resemblance to a wig on a barber's block." Even a brief
description is unnecessary with its portrait before us. It is a
savory morsel, and it cannot be confounded with any other fungus. It
frequently grows in such dense, crowded masses that a single group will
afford a dinner for a family.
[Illustration: A DINNER FOR A FAMILY]
It should be gathered while the gills are in the early white or pink
stage, and may be prepared for the table in various ways, either
broiled or fried, as described for previous species, or stewed with
milk, or otherwise served according to the culinary hints in our later
chapter, in which a special recipe for this species is found.
In a recent stroll down the main street of Litchfield, Connecticut, I
observed, over the fence in a front door-yard of a summer resident,
just such a dense cluster of the shaggy Coprinus, the proprietor of the
premises, an appreciative habitué of Delmonico's at other seasons of
the year, complacently reading his morning paper in his piazza, little
dreaming of the twenty pounds of dainty diet, fit for a king, so easily
available.
[Illustration: _Coprinus atramentarius_]
_PLATE XVII_