PLANTING 



on by his son-in-law, Jean Moretus, 

 the latter 'a son Balthasar, and 

 other members of the family. See 

 I'lantin-Moretus Museum ; consult 

 also Christophe Plantin, imprimeur 

 anversois, M. Rooses, 2nd ed. 1896. 



Planting. Art of placing trees, 

 shrubs, and plants in a proper 

 manner in suitable soil, to ensure 

 their healthy establishment and 

 welfare. In planting fairly large 

 trees the question of aspect needs 

 consideration. Twisting trees and 

 even shrubs round indiscrimi- 

 nately to face new aspects retards 

 their growth. Hence before being 

 moved from its original home the 

 si.le of a tree which has been facing, 

 say, S., should be marked in order 

 that it may be placed in the same 

 direction in its new home. Roots 

 should be disentangled, broken 

 pieces and tap-roots pruned off, and 

 the fibres spread out horizontally. 



The quick method of digging a 

 narrow, deep hole, and cramming 

 the roots of a plant or tree into it 

 vertically, is wrong. The soil should 

 be pressed very firmly about the 

 roots of newly planted trees and 

 shrubs, especially when the oper- 

 ation is carried out in the autumn. 

 Spring-planted subjects may be 

 allowed a little more latitude in 

 this respect, as there is less danger 

 of frost to be feared. When plant- 

 ing the young greenhouse-raised 

 summer bedding plants, the soil 

 should be left fairly free and open 

 for the purpose of aeration, but 

 care should be taken to set the 

 roots fairly deep in the ground. 

 The soaking of water which follows 

 the planting of summer bedding 

 plants usually washes the soil down 

 sufficiently close to secure the 

 welfare of the roots of the plants 

 in their new homes. See Afforesta- 

 tion ; Forestry ; Gardening ; Sowing. 



Plantin - Moretus Museum. 



Fine old building in Antwerp where 

 Christophe Plantin established his 

 home and printing-office in 1576. 

 For nearly 300 years his descen- 

 dants issued books, the last in 

 1865. In 1876 the building and its 

 contents were bought by the city of 

 Antwerp. The Plantin composing 

 and printing rooms, foundry, and 

 book shop have all been kept intact. 

 The museum contains many pro- 

 ductions of the Plantin-Moretus 

 and other early presses, valuable 

 books, MSS., and incunabulae, 

 tapestries, and portraits and pic- 

 tures acquired by successive 

 generations of the family. 



Plaque. In art, a flat metal 

 plate on which enamels are painted, 

 and, by transference, the enamels 

 themselves, e.g. those made at 

 Limoges (q.v. ) in the 15th century. 

 The word was also used of the plate 

 of a clasp, the badge of an order of 



6 188 



knighthood, and in modern times 

 it signifies a plate of china or earth- 

 enware on \vTiich designs are 

 painted and burnt in. See Enamel. 



Plaquette. Rectangular variety 

 of the medal, generally used for 

 portraiture. The designing of 

 plaquettes, neglected after the 

 Renaissance, was revived in France 

 about 1880 by L. O. Roty and 

 J. C. Chaplain. See Medal. 



Plasencia. City of Spain, in the 

 prov. of Caceres. It stands on the 

 river Jerte, an affluent of the 

 Alagon, 156 m. by rly. W. of 

 Madrid. Its unfinished cathedral 

 was founded in 1498. Plasencia 

 was founded by Alphonso VIII of 

 Castile in 1189 and created a 

 bishopric in 1190. It has a palace 

 dating from 1550 and remains of 

 12th century walls. The convent of 

 San Yuste, where Charles V retired 

 after his abdication, lies 24 m. to 

 the E. Pop. 9,500. 



Plassey. Former village of 

 Bengal, India. On the Bhagirathi, 

 about 95 m. N. of Calcutta, it was 

 here that Clive defeated the nawab 

 of Bengal, June 23, 1757. In 

 1756 the British at Calcutta were 

 threatened by Suraj-ud-Dowlah, 

 nawab of Bengal, Orissa, and Bihar, 

 who captured the town, and fol- 

 lowed this with the famous atrocity 

 of the Black Hole (q.v.), June, 1756*. 

 Operations against him were car- 

 ried on by Clive with varying suc- 

 cess through the winter and the 

 spring of 1757. Clive came to an 

 arrangement with Mir Jaffir, the 

 nawab's commander-in-chief, to set 

 him on the throne of Bengal, and 

 on June 13 advanced up the 

 Hooghli from Chandernagore. 



His force consisted of about 

 1,000 Europeans, 2,100 sepoys, and 

 10 guns, and, informed by Mir 

 Jaffir of the nawab's plans, he ad- 

 vanced to Plassey. Crossing the 

 river on June 22, he faced the 

 advancing enemy on the next 

 day. Suraj commanded some 

 35,^000 foot soldiers, with 18,000 

 cavalry, and about 50 guns, in- 

 cluding some French batteries. 

 After a violent bombardment 

 which strained the nawab's am- 

 munition resources, Clive attacked, 

 and overpowering a stubborn 

 French redoubt, swept the field. 

 Mir Jaffir was installed as nawab, 

 but as he was merely a nominal 

 ruler, Plassey had made the 

 British masters of Bengal at insig- 

 nificant cost. The river had eaten 

 away the actual field of battle by 

 1801. See Clive; India: History. 



Plaster. Pasty composition, 

 used for coating walls, ceilings, etc. 

 From remote times it has been a 

 common practice to give a more or 

 less smooth finish to wall surfaces 

 by covering them with a tractable 



PLASTER 



material plaster, a term that may 

 be held to include the clay-daubing 

 of primitive huts. With respect to 

 materials, choice is limited to 

 earths containing cement, crude or 

 manufactured, and used separately 

 or in combination with other 

 materials, such as powdered stone 

 or marble, asbestos, tufa, sand, 

 hair, fibre ; a modern develop- 

 ment being the introduction of 

 jute, or similar material, to bind 

 and strengthen the plaster ; while 

 the addition of agglutinates like 

 molasses or glue facilitates mould- 

 ing and modelling to decorative 

 shapes. Fibrous plaster has also 

 been extensively used as a con- 

 structive material for certain kinds 

 of buildings. 



Varieties of Plaster 



Ordinary plaster, as used on 

 walls and ceilings, is made by mix- 

 ing in water slaked lime with twice" 

 its bulk of clean, sharp sand river 

 sand for external and pit sand for 

 interior work. Plaster of Paris is 

 used by the plasterer mainly for 

 patching and repairing, but is also 

 mixed with ordinary plaster to 

 quicken setting and to give greater 

 hardness. The cements known as 

 Keene's, Martin's, and Parian all 

 have gypsum as their basis, and in 

 the order given are compounded 

 respectively with alum, carbonate 

 of potash, and borax. Roman 

 cement is made from the nodules or 

 septaria found in the London clay. 



Stucco for external work usually 

 consists of one part Portland 

 cement to four parts sand for the 

 first coat, with less sand for the 

 finishing coat, but sometimes 

 Roman cement is preferred for its 

 warmer colour. As used exten- 

 sively by Nash the architect, who 

 made it fashionable, stucco was one 

 part of hydraulic lime to three 

 parts of sand. 



Laths used in plastering are 

 generally of Baltic fir. They are 

 nailed to upright posts (studs), 

 sufficient space being left between 

 the laths to admit the plaster to a 

 strong foothold. In fire-resisting 

 construction, wooden laths are dis- 

 carded for some form of stamped- 

 metal or wire-mesh fabric to re- 

 ceive the plaster or cement. Alter- 

 natively, internal partitions, in- 

 stead of being formed of lath-and- 

 plaster, are constructed of sheets of 

 fibrous plaster, or of patent parti- 

 tion blocks left with a rough sur- 

 face to serve as a " key." 



In the plain plastering of in- 

 teriors the familiar creamy mix- 

 ture of lime, sand, and hair or 

 fibre, and water, is applied to 

 lathed walls and ceilings, is tech- 

 nically described as render, float, 

 and set, or three-coat work. The 

 rendering, or first coat, consists of 



