608 
P L A 
lating curves, and to place a bench at every turn where 
there is an objeftt to catch the view; to make water run 
where it will be heard, and to ftagnate where it will be 
1'een ; to leave intervals where the eye will be pleafed, 
and to thicken the plantation where there is fomething 
to be hidden ; demands any great powers of mind, I will 
not enquire. Johnfon's Life of Shenjlone. —To direct pro¬ 
perly : as, to plant cannon. 
To PLANT, v.n. To perform the aft of planting.—If 
you plant where favages are, do not only entertain them 
with trifles and jingles, but ufe them juftly. Bacon. 
To build, to plant, whatever you intend, 
In all let nature never be forgot. Pope. 
PLANT'-ANIMAL, f. A worm efflorefcing like a 
plant or vegetable. See the article Animal-Flower, 
vol. i. and Hydra, vol. x. p. 619.—Between the vegetable 
and fenfitive province there are plant-animals, and fome 
kind of infefts arifing from vegetables, that feem to par¬ 
ticipate of both. Hale’s Orig. of Mankind. —The next 
fpecies of life above the vegetable, is that of fenfe ; where¬ 
with fome of thofe produftions, which we call plant- 
animals, are endowed. Grew’s Cofmol. 
PLANT'AGE, f. [plantago, Lat.] An herb, or herbs 
in general.—As true as plantage to the moon. Skakefpeare. 
PLANTAG'ENET, the furname of the kings of Eng¬ 
land from Henry II. to Richard III. a fpace of 400 years. 
Antiquarians are much at a lofs to account for the origin 
of this name; and the bed; derivation they can find for 
it is, that Fulk, the firll earl of Anjou of that name, 
being flung with remorfe for fome wicked aftion, went 
in pilgrimage to Jerufalem as a work of atonement; 
where, being foundly fcourged with broom-twigs, (genijla, 
Lat. genet, Fr.) which grew plentifully on the fpot, he 
ever after took the furname of Plantagenel or Broom-ftalk, 
which was retained by his poflerity. 
PLANTAGINEL'LA, f. in botany. See Eriocaulon 
and Limosella. 
PLANTA'GINI ACCE'DENS. ) c - „ 
PLANTA'GINIS FO'LIIS. ) 066 1 ONTKr>ERIA * 
PLANTA'GO, f. [either from its refemblance to the 
foie of the foot, planta, in flatnefs, breadth, and lines or 
furrows; or from the depreffed trodden appearance of 
fome of the moll common fpecies, particularly P. media.] 
The Herb Plantain; in botany, a genus of the clafs 
tetrandria, order monogynia, natural order of plantagines, 
Jujf. Generic charafters —Calyx : perianthium four-cleft,, 
ereft, very fhort, permanent; in fome fpecies irregular, in 
others regular. Corolla one-petalled, permanent, fliri- 
velling; tube cylindrie - globular ; border four-cleft, 
reflex; fegmen.ts ovate, acute. Stamina: filaments four, 
capillar)’, ereft, very long; an there fomewhat oblong, 
compreffed, incumbent. Pillillum : germ ovate; ftyle 
filiform, fliorter by half than the ftamens; ftigma fimple. 
Pericarpium : capfule ovate, two celled, opening tranf- 
verfely, having a loofe partition. Seeds feveral or foli- 
tary, oblong. — Ejj'ential CharaBer. Calyx four-cleft; 
corolla four-cleft, with the border reflex; ftamina very 
long; capfule two-celled, cut tranfverfely. This genus 
contains forty-three fpecies, divided into two very- 
unequal feftions. 
I. Stem none : flower-ftalks naked. 
1. Plantago major, or great plantain: leaves ovate, 
fmoothilh, lhorter than the petiole; fcape round; fpike 
having the florets imbricate; feeds very many. The 
root of the great plantain, or way-bread, when old, is 
the thicknefs of the thumb, prsemorfe or flumped, laying 
Itror.g hold of the earth by its fibres, which flrike deeply, 
and are whitifli. Leaves petioled, feven-ribbed, orfome- 
times nine-ribbed, fmooth, but fomewhat hairy when 
young, about a hand in length, often remotely toothed 
about the edge. Petioles long, convex on the under fide, 
concave above, each forming a kind of flieath at its bafe. 
P L A 
Scapes upright, pubefcent, longer than the leaves. Spikes 
cylindrical, very long, linear, compofed of many clofely 
imbricate flowers, under each of which is a lanceolate 
concave brafte. Divifions of the calyx ovate, concave, 
blunt, fmooth, nearly equal. Antherae purple, two- 
celled, each cell terminating at bottom in a point. Style 
villofe. Seeds few, about nine in each cell; (according 
to Leers fix; but Mr. Curtis fays, he has commonly 
found about twenty fmall ones, whereas P. lanceolata 
has only two large feeds;) they are fub-ovate, flightly 
convex on one fide, angular on the other, with a ventral 
navel in the middle, of a palifh brown colour. 
Native of moll parts of Europe and Japan, in meadows, 
gardens, and particularly by way-fides, whence its name 
of way-bread. It is a perennial plant, and flowers during 
the whole fummer. The feeds afford food to many of 
the fmall birds. Mr. Curtis fays that cattle generally 
appear very readily to eat the leaves. According to the 
Swedifh experiments, flieep, goats, and fwine,eat it; cows 
and horfes refufe it. The leaves have a weak herbaceous 
fmell, and an auftere bitterifh fubfaline tafle; their quali¬ 
ties are faid to be refrigerant, attenuating, fubllyptic, and 
diuretie. 
Plantain was formerly reckoned among the mod effica¬ 
cious vulnerary herbs; and the common people now 
apply the leaves to frefh wounds and cutaneous fores. 
Inwardly they have been ufed in phthifical complaints, 
fpitting of blood, and in various fluxes, both alvineand 
haemorrhagic. The feeds however feem better adapted 
to relieve pulmonary difeafes than the leaves,, being ex¬ 
tremely mucilaginous. The roots have alfo been recom¬ 
mended for the cure of tertian intermittents, and, from 
the experience of Bergius, not undefervedly. An ounce 
or two of the expreffed juice, or the like quantity of a 
flrong infufion, may be given for a dofe ; in agues the 
dofe iliould be double this quantity, and taken at the 
commencement of the fit. Plantain is faid to be a cure 
for the bite of the rattle-fnake; but probably with little 
foundation, although it is one of the principal ingredients 
in the remedy cf the negro Ciefar, for the difeovery of 
which he received a confiderable reward from the Alleih- 
bly of South Carolina. 
| 3 . P. minor, is much fmaller than the common fort. 
Leaves three-nerved ; flalk not more than an inch and 
a half high 5 fpike fhorter and having fewer flowers in 
proportion. Inhabits about Shirehampton, and King’s 
Wefton, nearBriftol. 
y. P. dentata: leaves with large teeth towards the 
bale. 
^ P. pyramidalis: fpike leafy ; flower-leaves difpofed 
in a pyramidal form. 
e. P. rofea, or rofe-plantain : fpike abortive, or com¬ 
pofed of leaves, as in the preceding, which differs not 
from this, except in having the fpike-leaves imbricate in 
a pyramid; whereas in therofe-plantain they are expand¬ 
ed like a rofe ; both forts of fpike often fpring from the 
fame root. Rofe-plantain is often cultivated in gardens. 
£. P. fparfa, or befom-plantain : fpike abortive, leafy ; 
branching into a panicle. Found at Bedingham, near 
Bungay, in Suffolk. 
2. Plantago craffa, or thick-leaved plantain: leaves 
obovate, fhining, waved, fomewhat flelhy, fubfeflile; fcape 
compreffed below; flowers imbricate, remote at the bafe. 
Jacquin, who deferibes this plant in the Supplement to, 
his Colleftion, fays he is unacquainted with its native 
country. It is a ftiff and roughifh plant, pretty much 
divided, or many-headed. It bears the open air in fum¬ 
mer, but muff be taken into the green-houfe in winter. 
The root is perennial, confining of a heap of thick branchy 
white fibres: the radical leaves are numerous, thick, ereft, 
and either of an ovate or lanceolate form from a channelled 
foot-ftalk; nervous, dark green, and two or three inches 
long. Seeds ovate, punftated; if viewed with a glafs 
blackilh, and not gloffy. It is thought to be a native of 
