Cock's Head, Red Fitching, or Medick Fetch

Descript : This has divers weak but rough stalks, half a yard long, leaning downward, but set with winged leaves, longer and more pointed than those of Lintels, and whitish underneath; from the tops of these stalks arise up other slender stalks, naked without leaves unto the tops, where there grow many small flowers in manner of a spike, of a pale reddish colour with some blueness among them; after which rise up in their places, round rough, and somewhat flat heads. The root is tough, and somewhat woody, yet lives and shoots a-new every year.

Place : It grows upon hedges, and sometimes in the open fields, in divers places of this land.

Time : They flower all the months of July and August, and the seed ripen in the meanwhile.

Government and virtues : It is under the dominion of Venus. It has power to rarify and digest, and therefore the green leaves bruised and laid as a plaister, disperse knots, nodes, or kernels in the flesh; and if, when dry, it be taken in wine, it helps the stranguary; and being anointed with oil, it provokes sweat. It is a singular food for cattle, to cause them to give store of milk; and why then may it not do the like, being boiled in ordinary drink, for nurses.