Cow-Itch
COW-AGE, or COW- HAGE, the stinging hairs of the plant described below, or any species akin to it, as Mucuna urens, M. monosperma, etc. They are used as a mechanical anthelmintic. The plant, Mucuna pruriens, is a twining annual, with pendulous racemes of dark-colored flowers, which appear in India in the rainy season. The legume, which is shaped like the letter S, is clothed with stinging hairs. These are easily detached and stick on the skin, producing intolerable itching. The legume, when young, can be boiled and eaten like kidney-beans. The name is sometimes (improperly) given by the negroes of the Southern States to the poison-ivy, Rhus toxicodendron.