5/(5 
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for a pocket .] A petticoat.—The bone-ache is the curfe 
dependant on thofe that war for a placket. Shake/peace's 
'Trail, ancl Crejf. —Was that brave heart made to pant for 
a placket ? Beaurn. and FI. Hum. Lieut. — A fmall filver 
coin of the Netherlands, of 3! (livers current. The old 
plaquettes have been reduced to 2% (livers current. The 
weight of the placket is 1 dwt. 18 gr. its contents in pure 
lilver grains, 20; and its value in lterling 2|d. 
PLA'CUS, f. [7rAaKi;;, Gr. a cake; becaufe the inha¬ 
bitants of Cochinchina ufe the fragrant juice as an ingre¬ 
dient in cakes. Lour. Cochinch. 496.] In botany, a genus 
ot theclafs fyngenefia, order polygamia-fuperflua, natural 
order of compofitre nucamentacese, Linn, (corymbiferse, 
Jujf.) Generic charadlers—Common calyx imbricated, 
inverfely turbinate ; fcales linear, (lender, eredl. Corolla 
compound, equal to the calyx, erefl; florets of the diik 
few, all pertedt, tubular, five-cleft; thofe of the circum¬ 
ference very numerous, naked. Stamina (in the perfedl 
florets,) filaments five, very (hort; anthers forming a cy¬ 
lindrical tube. Piftillum (in all the florets,) germen 
oblong ; ftyle thread-fhaped, (hort ; (ligmas two, oblong, 
eredt in the perfedl florets, reflexed in the female ones. 
Pericarpium none, except the unchanged calyx. Seed 
to each of the florets oblong, moll (lender in the female 
ones; down capillary. Receptacle naked, convex.— 
JEJfential CharaEler. Receptacle naked ; down capillary; 
calyx imbricated, inverfely turbinate, with linear fcales ; 
florets of the radius without a corolla. There are two 
fpecies. 
1. Placus tomentofus : leaves ovate, obtufe, downy on 
both fides. Found wild, as well as cultivated, in Co¬ 
chinchina. Stem herbaceous, two feet high, eredl, 
branched. Leaves alternate, feflile, ferrated, odoriferous. 
Flowers violet, in terminal, eredt, oblong panicles. 
2. Placus laevis: leaves ovate, pointed, fmooth. Na¬ 
tive of the fame country. Stem not quite fo tall, fmooth. 
Flowers pale yellow, in fhorr terminal panicles. Calyx 
tumid at the bafe. We know nothing of thefe plants but 
from the account of Loureiro. See Elichrysum, Gna- 
fhalium, and Erigeron. 
PLADARO'MA, f. [from the Gr. ttXo. actios, moift.] 
Exceffive weaknefs arifmg from too great a degree of 
moifture ; a little foft dwelling under the eye-lid. 
PLADARO'SIS, or Pladarotes, a fmall foft dwelling 
under the eye-lid. 
PLA'DIA, or Bladia, a town cf Pruflia, in the pro¬ 
vince of Natangen: twenty - two miles fouth-welt of 
Konigfberg. 
PLAD'LING, a town of Bavaria, fituated on the Ifer: 
eight miles north-weft of Oiterhofen, and five fouth-weft 
of Deckendorf. 
PLATOND, f. in architedlure, the ceiling of a room; 
the lower member of a cornice. 
PLA'GA, f. [Latin.] A country,a climate; a blow, a 
wound. Phillips. 
PLA'GAL, adj. [plagalis, Lat. from the Gr. wAaysof, 
oblique.] In mulic, a term which is oppofed to authentic. 
Piagal and authentic, in the ecclefiaftical modes, or canto 
terino, imply the different divifions of the odlave. The 
terms authentic and piagal are cenfured by Meibomius 
and Bontempi as barbarous. Bontempi propofes, inftead 
of the word authentic, to fubftitute “ principal and for 
piagal , “ relative, or collateral.” We have ufed the word 
<,e fubftituted.” See the article Music, vol. xvi. p. 326, 7. 
Thefe diftinffions in the Romifti church are fimilar to 
the difcriminations made by the Greek mufical writers 
where they clafs their modes under the denominations of 
principal and Jubordinate , with the diftinflion of hyper and 
hypo. It is not furprifing that the primitive Chriftians 
lliould give Greek names to the fpecies of odlaves in imi¬ 
tation of the Greek modes ; nor, if we reflect on the fim- 
plicity that was aimed at, and the humble (late of thofe 
who (irft employed mufic in their religious worftiip, (hall 
y e wonder at the incorredl and artlels manner in which 
it .was done, Hew the Roman church acquired Greek 
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terms in canto fermo it is eafy likewife to imagine, if 
we recolleft that it was a prefent from Greek fathers : 
and Gregory, in reforming the mafs, not only retained 
thefe Greek terms, but adopted others, both from the 
Greek and Hebrew languages and ceremonies, in order to 
conciliate parties, and acquire converts: as Kyrie Eleifon 
from tlie Greek, and Hallelujah from the Hebrew. 
PLAGIAN'TIIUS, f. [fo named by Forfler from the 
Gr. ■a-Aayio;, oblique, and cci 9 0;, a flower; the petals being 
fo difpoled, that the flowers feem to be bent down (ide- 
ways.] In botany, a genus of the clafs monadelphia, 
order dodecandria. Generic charaflers—Calyx : peri- 
anthium five-cleft, (hort; fegments very fmall. Corolla: 
petals five, ovate ; two clofer together, more remote than 
the reft. Stamina: filaments collected into a cylinder; 
antherae about twelve, ovate, cluftered on the top of the 
cylinder. Piftillum: germ ovate, very fmall; ftyle fili¬ 
form, concealed within the cylinder of ftamens; lligtna 
club-fhaped. Pericarpium : berry.— EJfential Charatler. 
Calyx five-cleft; petals five, two approximating, remote 
from the other three ; berry. 
Plagianthus divaricatus, the only fpecies. Native of 
New Zealand. 
PLAGIA'RA, or Plagiaria, in ancient geography, a 
town of Spain, in Lufitania, upon the route from Olifipo 
to Emerita, between Emerita and Budua, according to 
the Itinerary of Antonine. 
PLA'GIARISM, [from plagiary .] Literary theft; 
adoption of the thoughts or works of another.—With 
great impropriety, as well as plagiarifm, they have moft 
injurioufly been transferred intoproverbial maxims. Swift. 
There is nothing new under the fun ! Geologifts dis¬ 
cover the earth we inhabit to have been made out of one 
which previoufly exifted; and the learned detect, in the wri¬ 
tings of the prefent day.littlebut the Spoils of generations 
pad. Indeed, in thofe inventions which feem to admit of 
dates, as in mechanical or philofophical difeoveries, it is 
no eafy talk to follow them to their origin ; and, were 
Beckmann himfelf called upon to make out a lift front 
Elyfium of worthies 
-qui vitam excoluere per artes 
Inventus, 
he would find himfelf often unable to determine to whom 
priority of place belonged. Hints are thrown out by one, 
which another picks up and improves. Principles are 
eftablifhed, without any view to diftant refults ; yet by 
means of them refults the moft important are obtained. 
Ages are required to perfedl what a moment has commenc¬ 
ed ; and, by the time the work itfelf becomes ufeful, it 
is too late to afeertain its author. But, if this be true in 
the progrefs of works of art and fcience, it is more obviouf- 
ly fo in thofe of the imagination. It is wonderful how lit¬ 
tle pure invention is to be met with in the world, and with 
what difficulty we trace a popular ftory to its fource. To 
cry ‘ flop thief’ is vain, when the property is transferred 
irdm hand to hand in endlefs fucceffion, with fo much expe¬ 
dition and fecrecy. The moft we can do is to trace a lite¬ 
rary theft to Homer; and yet it is contrary to all expe¬ 
rience, to fuppofe that a poem, fo complete in its flruc- 
ture, fo melodious in its verfe, fo fin idled in its language, 
lliould have been the firft of its kind. 
Thomafius has an exprefs treatife de plagio literario; 
wherein he lays down the laws and meafure of the right 
which authors have to one another’s writings. Dic¬ 
tionary writers, at lead fuch as explain the arts and 
fciences, feem in this cafe to be exempted from the com¬ 
mon laws of meum and tuum ; they do not pretend to fet 
up on their own bottom, nor to treat the reader at their 
own coil. Their works are fuppofed, in great meafure, 
compofitions of other people; and whatever they take 
from others, they do it avowedly. In effefl, their quality 
gives them a title to appropriate every thing that may be 
for their purpofe, wherever they find it; and they do no 
othervvife, than as the bee does, for the public fervice. 
3 Their 
