Hare's Foot
Description. This plant seldom rises very high, but spreads out into many slender branches, having small narrow hairy trefoil leaves set at every joint; on the tops of the branches grow short round heads composed of small papilionaceous pale purple flowers, each set in a soft woolly calyx, making the heads appear soft and downy. The seed is small, lying at the bottom of the calyx; the root is little, and perishes yearly.
Place. It is found frequently among corn, and in fallow-fields. Time. It flowers in June and July. The whole plant is used, though not very often.
Government and virtues. Hare's-foot is a Mercurial herb, drying and binding; accounted good for a diarrhea and dysentery, and to stop the too great flux of the catamenia and the fluor albus. It helps the ulceration of the bladder, and heat and pain in making water. It is a powerful astringent, wherefore it is recommended in all cases where a stringents are safe. It is a vulnerary, and as such, Mr. Ray says, the leaves put into the shoes, will stop all unnatural fluxes of the bowels: this wants further confirmation. However, it is certain, that your carriers wear the leaves in their shoes, which keep them cool, and prevent a too immoderate sweating of the feet, which causes often a soreness of them. The common people, in a violent feverish heat, apply the bruised leaves of this plant, mixed with salt and vinegar, to the soles of the feet, sometimes not without success.