P L I 
P L I 
PLI'CA, f. [Lat. plique, old Fr.] A difeafe of the 
hair, faid to be almoit peculiar to Poland; and called 
Plica Polonica. See the article Pathology, vol. xix. p. 
364.—Many difeafes altogether unknown to Galen and 
Hippocrates; as, fmall-pox, plica, fweating ficknefs, See. 
Eurton's Anat. of Mel. 
PLICA'TION, or Pli'cature, f. [plicatura , Lat. from 
plico, to fold.] Fold ; double : 
No man can unfold 
The many plicatvres fo clofely prefs’d. 
Mures Song of the Soul. 
PLIE'DERHAUSEN, a town of Germany, in Wir- 
temberg, on the Rems, near Lorch ; with 1 300 inhabitants. 
PLIENIN'GEN, a town of Germany, in Wirtemberg, 
in the vicinity of Stutgard. Population 900. 
PLIE'RH AUSEN, a village of Germany, in Wirtem- 
berg, near JJrach ; with 900 inhabitants. 
PLI'ERS, j. [from plier, Fr. to bend.] An indru- 
tnent by which any thing is laid hold on, commonly to 
bend it.— Pliers are of various forts, fiat-nofed, round- 
nofed, long-no(ed, See. Their office is to hold and fallen 
upon a (mall work, and to fit it in its place. The round- 
nofed pliers are uled for turning or boring wire or fmall 
plate into a circular form. Moron. —I made a detention 
by a fmall pair of pliers. Wifeman. 
To PLIGHT, v. a. [plihtan, Sax.] To pledge ; to give 
as furety.—Here my inviolable faith I plight. Dryden. 
New loves you feek, 
New vow's to plight, and plighted vows to break. Dryden. 
I'll never mix my plighted hands with thine, 
While fuch a cloud of mifehiefs hangs about us. Addifon. 
To braid; to weave ; [from plico, Lat. whence to ply or 
bend, and plight, pleight, or plait, a fold or flexure.] — 
She [Boadicea] wore a plighted garment of divers colours. 
Milton's Hijl. of Eng. 
Her head ffie fondly would aguize 
With gaudy girlonds, or flefh flowrets dight 
About her neck, or rings of ruflies plight. Spenfer. 
I took it for a fairy vifion 
Of fome gay creatures of the element, 
That in the colours of the rainbow live, 
And play i’ the plighted clouds. Milton's Comus. 
PLIGHT, f. [Skinner imagines it to be derived from 
the Teut. plicht, office or employment; but Junius ob- 
ferves, that plibs, Sax. fignifies diftrefs or preffing danger; 
and plight is moil commonly ufed in a bad fenfe.] Con¬ 
dition; Hate.— I think myfeif in better plight for a 
lender than you are. Shahejpeare. 
Befeech your highnefs. 
My women may be with me ; for, you fee 
M y plight requires it. Shakefpeare's Wint. Tale. 
Thou mud not here 
Lie in this miferable loathfome plight. Miltons S. A. 
Good cafe.—When a traveller and his horfe are in heart 
and plight, when his purfe is full, and the day before 
him, he takes the road only where it is clean or conve¬ 
nient. Swift's Tale of a Tub. , 
Who abufetli his cattle and (larves them for meat. 
By carting or plowing, his gaine is not great ; 
Where he that with labour can ufe them aright, 
Hath gaine to his comfort, and cattel in plight. Tujfer, 
Pledge ; gage: [from To plight , to pledge ] 
That lord, whole hand mud take my plight, (hall carry 
Half my love with him, half my care and duty. Shukefp. 
A fold; a pucker; a double; a purfle; a plait: [from 
To plight; to braid.] 
Yclad, for fear of fcorching air, 
All in a filken camus, lilly white, 
Purfied upon with many a folded plight. 
691 
A garment of fome kind. Probably a mantle or plaid. 
Becaufe my wrack 
Chanc’t on his father’s fhore, he let not lack 
My plight, or coate, or cloake, or any thing 
Might cherilh heat in me. Chapman. 
PLI'GHTER, f. A pledger; that which plights: 
To let a fellow that will take rewards, 
And fay, “God quit you,’’ be familiar with 
“ My playfellow, your hand.” This kingly feal, 
And plighter of high hearts ! Shakejpeare's Ant. and Cleop. 
To PLIM, v. n. To fwell ; to increafe in bulk. Grofe 
cites this expreflion as peculiar to the Exmore dialeCt: 
but it is ufed in other parts of England, and is appa¬ 
rently a corruption of plump ; as, The bacon will ptim 
in the pot. 
PLIN'IA, f. [fo named by Plunder, in memory of the 
elder Pliny.] In botany, a genus of the clafs icofandria, 
order monogynia, natural order of rofaceae, Jujf. Gene¬ 
ric chandlers—Calyx: perianthium one-leafed, five or 
four parted; fegments acute, flat, fmall. Corolla five or 
four petal led; petals ovate, concave. Stamina: fila¬ 
ments numerous, capillary, the length of the coroila ; 
antherae fmall. Piflillum: germ fuperior, fmall; dyle 
awl-fhaped, longer than the flamens : fligma Ample. 
Pericarpium : drupe very large, globular, grooved. Seed 
fingle, very large, globular, fmooth.— Ejjential Character. 
Calyx five or four parted ; petals five or four; drupe 
fuperior, grooved; (inferior in PI. pedunculata.) 
1. Plinia crocea, or faffron-fruited plinia : flowers five- 
petalled. By Plunder's figure, which is our only guide, 
this appears to be a tree, with round alternate branches. 
The leaves are oppofite, nearly fertile, ovate, pointed, 
entire, about three inches long and one broad, apparently 
fmooth, with one rib, and many tranfverfe incurved veins. 
Flowers fcattered over the larger branches, nearly fertile, 
folitary, fcarcely fo bigas a hawthorn blolfom, the taper¬ 
ing dyle projecting beyond the numerous damens, which 
are themfelves longer than the petals. Fruit globular, 
faffron-coloured and fragrant, according to Plumier, the 
fize of a large goofeberry, deeply f urrowed, and wrinkled. 
Nut more (lightly furrowed, or rather quite globular and 
only driated, large, wdth a thin rtiell, and full kernel. 
2. Plinia pedunculata, or red-fruited plinia : flowers 
four-petalied. Leaves oppofite, Ample, even, like thofe 
of myrtle, ovate. Flowers peduncled, the length of the 
leaves, fubumbelled ; petals four or eight, obovate, fertile, 
twice as long as the calyx. Berry roundifh, the fize of a 
plum, with eight fwellings, one-celled, umbilicated with 
a four-toothed calyx, very like thofe of the other fpecies, 
red and fapid. Seed Angle, fubglobular. Native of Brafil. 
Cultivated here in 1759, by Mr. Miller. It flowers in 
January and February. It is commonly cultivated in 
Madeira and the Wed Indies. In this country it may 
be increafed by the feeds, which rtiould be procured from 
abroad, and which rtiould be fown in pots, filled with 
rich mould, plunging them in a bark hot-bed, when they 
appear in the fame feafon. It may alfo be increafed by 
planting cuttings of the young (hoots, in the later fpring 
and fummer months, in pots filled with good earth, co¬ 
vering them with hand or bell glades, and watering them 
occafionally. They may be fo rooted as to be fit for remov¬ 
ing into leparate pots the fame year. It is a plant 
highly ornamental in dove collections, from its flowering 
in the winter feafon. This fpecies is thrice repeated by 
Linnaeus : twice in the Species Plantarum, under the names 
of Eugenia and Myrtus ; and again in the thirteenth 
edition of Syrtema Vcgetabilium and Mantilla Plantarum, 
under the name of Plinia rubra. See Myrtus Braft- 
liana, vol. ii. p. 459. 
PL 1 N lA'N A, a town or rather village of Italy: fix 
miles north of Como. This place is remarkable for a 
Angular fountain, which is dill to be feen in the fame ftaie 
7 ^ ** 
Spenfer. 
