[f. COW sb.1 + BANE sb.1 2 b, poison, poisonous plant.] A name of the Water Hemlock, Cicuta virosa, an extremely poisonous plant, mentioned by Linnæus as fatal to cows. Spotted cowbane: an American species, C. maculata.
1776. Withering, Brit. Plants, I. 177. Cowbane … is one of the rankest of our vegetable poisons…. Early in the spring, when it grows in the water, cows often eat it and are killed by it.
1800. Sir J. E. Smith, Flora Brit., I. 322. Cicuta virosa, Water Hemlock, Water Cowbane.
1854. Balfour, Class-bk. Bot., 826.
1889. R. B. Anderson, trans. Rydberg’s Teut. Mythol., 216. A woman, who had her lap full of cowbanes.
