Common Edible Mushrooms

COMMON EDIBLE MUSHROOMS
The cap is shaped much like the pointed end of a hen's egg
and is about that size or a little larger, gray in color, with very
delicate parallel furrows running frojn the margin up toward the
center. The margin is usually split or scalloped in several places.
The gills are from 1/4 to 1/3 inch wide, packed tightly together
except in the region where they are liquefying. The stem is about
1/4 inch in diameter and from 2 to 3 inches long, white and
brittle, sometimes with a very narrow, inconspicuous ring where
the margin of the cap was once attached.
This species grows on or near decayed wood, in dense clumps
of half a dozen to fifty plants, so that if one finds it at all he is
assured of enough for a good meal. Though generally found in
hardwood forests and thickets, it is no stranger to lawns or gardens.
Delicious: COPRINUS COMATUS (Shaggymane)
This large and meaty mushroom is one of the best and most
easily recognized of the common edible kinds (see "The Foolproof
Four"; Figures 5, 51, and 52; Plate iB). The cap is at first
nearly cylindrical, from i 1/2 to 2 inches wide and 4 to 6 inches
high, covered with the soft, shaggy scales that suggested the
common name. The gills are from 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide and are
packed together solidly. Unless one gets very young specimens
the lower edges of the gills will have begun to turn dark, but
this portion can be cut off and discarded. The stem is white,
about 1/2 inch thick, from 5 to 8 inches long, and rather fibrous
and brittle. It grows on lawns, in parks, and in other grassy
places from spring until fall. Usually several specimens appear
near one another or grow tightly clumped together.
Eminently edible: COPRINUS MICACEUS (Mica cap or
Inky Cap)
This common small Coprinus (Figure 50 and Plate lA) comes
up in profusion around trees and stumps, apparently living
82