P L A 
To PLAIT, v. a. [from the Su, Goth, plaeta, to weave, 
to braid ; the Gr. ttAbku, and Welfh plethu, dignify the 
fame 5 Lat. pliro, and pledo 5 or from Ply, which fee.] 
To fold 5 to double.— Will fhe on Sunday morn thy 
neckcloth plait? Gay, 
Some fold the fleeve, while others plait the gown ; 
And Betty’s prais’d for labours not her own. Pope. 
To weave; to braid.—Let it not be that outward adorn¬ 
ing of plaiting the hair. 1 Pet. iii. 3.—Your hands have 
not been employed in plaiting the hair, and adorning your 
perfons, but in making clothes for the naked. Law. 
What (lie demands inceflant I’ll prepare; 
I’ll weave her garlands, and I’ll plait her hair ; 
My bufy diligence fhall deck her board, 
For there at leaf! I may approach my lord. Prior. 
To intangle ; to involve : 
Time fhall unfold what plaited cunning hides, 
Who cover faults, at laft them fhame derides. Sliakejp. 
PLAIT, or Pleat, /. [Our old word is pleat? and it is 
fo pronounced in the example from Prior.] A fold ; a 
double.—Hiding bafe fin in pleats of majefty. S/iahefpeare’s 
Pape of Lucrece. —’Tis very difficult to trace out the 
figure of a velt through all the plaits and foldings of the 
drapery. Addifon. 
Should the voice dire£Uy ftrike the brain, 
It would aftonifh and confufe it much ; 
Therefore thefe plaits and folds the found reftrain, 
That it the organ may more gently touch. Davies. 
Nor fhall thy lower garment’s artful plait, 
From thy fair fide dependent to thy feet, 
Arm their chafte beauties with a model! pride, 
And double every charm they feek to hide. Prior. 
PLATTER- f. One that plaits. 
PLATTING, f. The aft of folding ; the aft of making 
up with plaits; that part of a garment which is made up 
in plaits. 
PLAK, a town of Hungary : five miles fouth of 
Cafchau. 
PLAN, /. [French.] A fell erne; a form 5 a model: 
Remember, O my friends, the laws, the rights, 
The generous plan of power, delivered down 
From age to age to your renown’d forefathers. Addifon. 
The reprefentation of any thing drawn on a plane ; fuch 
are maps, charts, ichnographies, &c. The term, however, 
is particularly ufed for a draught of a building, fuch as it 
appears, or is intended to appear, on the ground, fhowing 
the extent, divifion, and diftribution of its area or ground- 
plot into apartments, rooms, paflages, &c.—A geometrical 
plan is that wherein the folid and vacant parts are repre¬ 
sented in their natural proportions. The railed plan of a 
building is the fame with what is otherwife called an 
elevation. Chambers. 
Artifts and plans reliev’d my folemn hours ; 
I founded palaces, and planted bowers. Prior. 
To PLAN, v. a. To fcheme ; to form in defign : 
Vouchfafe the means of vengeance to debate, 
And plan with all thy arts the feene of fate. Pope. 
PLAN, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of Pilfen : 
fixty-fix miles weft-fouth-weft of Prague, and twenty-five 
miles weft-fouth-weft of Pilfen. Lat. 49. 52. N. Ion. 12. 
47. E. 
PLAN [El), a town of Spain, in Aragon : fifteen miles 
north of Ainfa. 
PLAN (Le), a town of France in the department of 
the Upper Garonne : fix miles fouth of Rieux. 
PLAN de BAIX, a town of France in the depart¬ 
ment of the Drome: nine miles north-eaft of Creft. 
PLAN, OBER, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of 
Bechin : twelve miles weft-fouth-weft of Crumau. 
Vol.XX. No. 1393 
P L A 589 
PLA'NA, a town of Sweden, in Weft Gothland : thirty 
miles eaft-north-eaft of U.ddevaila. 
PLA'NA, [La), a town of Spain in Valencia : twenty- 
two miles eaft of Segorbe. 
PLA'NA, or Tabar'ca, a fmall ifland in the Medi¬ 
terranean, near the coaft of Valencia, a little to the fouth- 
eaft of Cape St. Pola. Lat. 37. 11. N. Ion. o. 34. W. 
PLA'NARTA, in ancient geography, an ifland fituated 
on the coaft of Italy, in the Ligurian fea, fixty miles from 
that of Corfica. Pliny. 
PLANA'RIA, f. in natural hiftory, a genus of vermes 
inteftina, or inteftinal worms. Generic charaflers—* 
Body gelatinous, flattifh, with a double ventral pore; 
mouth terminal. There are forty-eight fpecies, moftly 
inhabitants of ftagnant waters or marfhy places. The 
fpecies are diftributed into five fe&ions, diftinguifhed as 
to the number of their eyes or their being without eyes. 
I. Eyes none. 
1. Planaria ftagnalis: ovate, brown, the fore-part pale. 
It inhabits ftagnant waters ; the body is opaque, a little 
pointed on the fore-part, pellucid, with two milk-white 
fpots; the eggs are numerous, whitilh, placed at the fides. 
2. Planaria nigra : oblong, black, and truncate on the 
fore-part. It inhabits rivers. 
3. Planaria brunnea : oblong, reddilh-brown, with a 
longitudinal black line. 
4. Planaria ciliata: body long, deprefled, and ciliate. 
It is found in ftagnant waters, under duck-weed : it is a 
very curious creature5 the body is grey, appearing as if 
compofed of granulations, with moveable briftles; the 
organ on the fore-part rotatory. 
5. Planaria gulo : body long, pellucid, and truncate 
before. This alfo is found in ftagnant waters, under 
duck-weed : refembles the laft, but is without the fringe; 
the margin all round is teflelate, with extremely fine 
ftrise; it fwallows the feveral fpecies of the Cyclidium 
which inhabit the fame waters, and after a time difeharges 
them again. 
6. Planaria pundlata : body long, round, and green. 
Found early in the fpring in wet meadows. The body is 
obtufe before, a little pointed behind, fprinkled with 
fmall black dots, and containing five red fpherical pel¬ 
lucid eggs. 
7. Planaria flaccida : body long; tapering-at each end ; 
reddilh, with tranfverfe white lines. It is found among 
heaps of fliells in the bays of Norway; when at reft it 
rolls itfelf up fpirally, and then gradually dilates itfelf. 
This is reprefented on the annexed Engraving, at fig. 1. 
of the natural fize; and a piece of the front part, mag¬ 
nified, at b. 
8. Planaria rofea: body long, obtufe at both ends; 
above dark red, faintly ftriate with black, (fee fig. 2.) 
beneath paler,.marbled red and white, as appears at c. 
Found in the bays of Norway. 
9. Planaria angulata : body long, reddilh-brown, w ith 
two white angles on the fore-part. Found in the fandy 
bottoms of the ocean. 
10. Planaria rubra: body oblong, deprefled; pale red; 
marked with fine tranfverfe lines above ; belly paler. It 
inhabits the deeps of the Greenland Ihores. See fig. 3. 
and d. 
11. Planaria viridis : body oblong, green; beneath 
paler; the fore-part obtufe with a red cleft each fide, and 
obliquely truncate behind: towards the middle beneath 
is a ovate foramen: vent in the middle of the back. 
This is flfown in different pofitions at fig. 4. and e, /, g. 
It is found among the roots of marine fuci. 
12. Planaria operculata: body fubovate, grey, and 
furnifhed beneath with a lid which conceals the exfertile 
tube. Inhabits, though rarely, the fandy (bores, par¬ 
ticularly among fuci, in the bays of Norway. In ap¬ 
pearance it feems to refemble a coffee-berry, and moves 
by bending in its margin, and by means of its marginal 
folds fixes itfelf to and afeends other bodies. 
7 L 13- Pte' 
