1. Applied to some kinds of Trefoil and allied plants, including: a. A species of Sainfoin, Onobrychis Caput-galli; applied by Gerarde to the common species O. sativa. b. Common Red Clover. c. According to Cockayne, probably Melilot.
14[?]. Harl. MS. 3388 (in Cockayne, Leechd.). Cocks hedys.
1597. Gerarde (Br. & Holl.).
1613. Markham, Eng. Husb., II. II. vii. (1635), 84. When … the Cock-heads looke upright … then is your Meddow not ready to cut.
1688. R. Holme, Armoury, II. 91/2. Cocks head is a small Cod, with Vitch like leaves.
1756. Watson, Leicestersh. Plants, in Phil. Trans., XLIX. 843. Medick Vetchling or Cocks-head.
2. In the West Indies, Desmodium tortuosum, a papilionaceous plant, with much-twisted jointed pods. (Miller, Names of Plants.)
3. Applied locally to various plants, as Common Ribgrass (Plantago lanceolata), Knapweed (Centaurea nigra), and in Scotland to species of Wild Poppy. (Britten and Holl.)
1787. W. Marshall, E. Norfolk Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cocks-heads, Plantago lanceolata, plantain, rib-wort, rib-grass. Ibid. (1790), Midl. Counties Gloss. (E. D. S.), Cockheads, Centaurea nigra, common knobweed.
