COWES 180 COWSLIP He was High Steward of Colchester, and in 1918 was elected Rector of the Uni- versity of Aberdeen. COWES (kowz), a British seaport on the N. coast of the Isle of Wight. It is built on both sides of the river Medina, dividing it into two tovsms, East and West Cowes. The town has an excellent harbor, is much frequented for watering ships, and is the headquarters of the Royal Yacht Club, and, moreover, a place of very fashionable resort, not only in the season, but for the greater part of the year. The famous Cowes Regatta is held there annually in Au- gust. Fop. about 15,000. 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. m.onosperma, etc. They are used as a mechanical an- thelmintic. 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 leg- ume, 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. COWLES, WILLIAM SHEFFIELD, an American rear-admiral, born in Farm- ington, Conn., in 1846. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1867, and rising through the various grades, became lieutenant-commander in 1892, commander in 1899, captain in 1902, and rear-admiral in 1908. Besides seeing service in all the principal stations, he acted as naval attache at London, and as naval aide to the Secretary of the Navy. He was chief of the Bureau of Equip- ment, and a member of the Board of Construction in 1906. In 1908 he retired from active service. He was a member of the Connecticut House of Representa- tives in 1916, and during the World War served as an officer of the Home Guard of Connecticut. COWLEY, ABRAHAM, an English poet and essayist; born in London in 1618. Well educated and high in royal favor, he was a fashionable and fortunate poet till the Civil War made havoc of royal favorites. His volumes, "The Mis- tress," "Poems," various Vergilian elegies and anacreontic love songs, and his es- says, were set in the first rank by contem- poraries. The first collection of his works, in one volume, appeared in 1668. He died in Chertsey, Surrey, July 28, 1667. COW PARSNIP (so called because the plant is good fodder for cows), Herac- leum sphondylium, or any other species of the genus. COW PEA (Trifolium medium), called also cow-grass, etc., but is neither a pea nor a grass; it is a trefoil or clover. COWPER, WILLIAM, an English poet; born in Berkhampstead, Nov. 15, 1731 ; was the great-nephew of the Lord- Chancellor Cowper. After completing his education, his family procured him the place of clerk to the House of Lords, but his nervousness and constitutional timidity were such that he was obliged to resign it. He now fell into so terrible a state of nervous debility that he was for some time placed in the lunatic asylum of Dr. Cotton. The skill and humanity of that gentleman restored him, and he retired to Huntingdon. Here he became acquainted with the family of the Unwins; and after Mr. Unwin's death he removed with Mrs. Unwin to Olney, Buckinghamshire. His natural melan^ choly colored his religious views and feel- ings, and he fell often into the most pain- ful despondency, but continued to write. In addition to translating Homer, he wrote "The Task," the best of all of his poems; "Tirocinium"; a host of smaller works; and his correspondence exhibits him as one of the most elegant of English letter-writers. He died in Norfolk, April 25, 1800. COW PLANT, a perennial asclepiad of Ceylon, which acquired a factitious celebrity from the oft-repeated statement that its milky juice is used as milk, and that its leaves are boiled to supply the want of cream. COWRY, the English name of the molluscous genus Cyprsea. The money- cowry is C. tnoneta, a native of the Pacific and Eastern seas. Many tons are annually shipped to Great Britain, whence they are again taken as money to be used in commercial transactions with the tribes of western Africa. There is another species, C. annulus, used locally among the Eastern islands for the same purpose. COWSLIP, a well-known plant, Pt-im- ula veris, of the same genus as the prim- rose, P. vulgaris, the oxslip, P. elatior, etc. The two last are very much akin. The first and second widely differ in ap- pearance, but statements from time to time appear that they have been found growing from the same root, in which case they would not be two species, but varieties of one. The cowslip has ovate- crenate, toothed, and wrinkled leaves, with the flowers in an umbellate scape.
