702 
P L U 
to both works. This publication comprehends above 
iooo new plants, with numerous obfervations and cor- 
reftions relating to the former. Some of Plukenet’scriti- 
cifms difplay great learning: as what concerns the gopher 
or juniper-tree of the Bible, i Kings, xix. 4. though he errs 
in referring the Barbados juniperto this oriental plant. 
In 1705, Plukenet published his lad work, the Amal- 
iheum, which is a fuppleinent to the other tw'O, and cora- 
pofed on the fame plan, confiding of 216 pages, with an 
index, and 103 plates, fome of which illuftrate the plants 
of the Mantilla. 
All thefe works were republilhed, with new title-pages, 
in 1720, and again, with a re-impreflion of the letter- 
prefs, in 1769, making four volumes all together. Gifeke 
pubiilhed a very incomplete Linnzean index to them at 
Hamburg in 1779. The Herbarium of Plukenet, con¬ 
taining about 8000 plants, having been bought by fir 
Hans Sloane, is now in the Britifit Mufeum. The 
original manufeript of his works was given by the late 
Mr. Hudfon to the writer of the prefent article in Rees's 
Cyclopaedia. 
PLUKENE'TIA, [fo named by Plumier from thefub- 
je£l of the preceding article.] In botany, a genus of the 
clafs monoecia, order monodelphia, natural order of 
tricoccae, (euphorbia, Jujf.) Generic charadlers—I. Male 
flower. Calyx none, unlefs the corolla be regarded as 
fuch. Corolla : petals four, ovate fpreading. Stamina, 
lilaments eight, very Ihort, united. Antherae ere< 5 t, fim- 
ple. Nedtary, four glands, at the bafe of the ftamens, 
furnilhed with a beard longer than the ftamens. II. Female 
flower on the fame plant with the males larger. Calyx 
four-leaved, fmall. Corolla as in the males. Piftillum : 
germen quadrangular ; ftylefiliform, very long, declined; 
ftigma peltate, four-cleft; fegments obtufe, flat, each 
marked with a dot in the middle. Pericarpium : C3pfule 
deprefled,quadrangular,keeled at the angles, in the middle 
of which is a thin wart, four-celled: cells two-valved. 
Seeds folitary, roundifh, comprefled, a little acuminate at 
one end.— Effential Character. Calyx none; petals four. 
Male, ftamens, eight; neffaries four, bearded. Female, 
ftyle very long, with a peltate four-lobed ftigma; capfule 
four-grained. Linnaeus's iingle fpecies, has been divided 
into three. 
1. Plukenetia voiubilis, or twining plukenetia; (Linn. 
Sp. PI. 14.23.) Angles of the capfule comprefled, keeled. 
Native of the Weft Indies. Miller appears to have culti¬ 
vated it at .Chelfea, in 1739; ^ ut it ' iac * long been loft, 
till the late Hon. Mrs. Barrington received a living plant 
from Jamaica, which bloffomed in her ftove at Mungewell, 
near Wallingford, in 1759. The ftem is twining, branch¬ 
ed, round, leafy, fmooth; the young branches alternate, 
axillary, downy in their upper part. Leaves alternate, 
Balked, Ample, lieart-fliaped, pointed, about three inches 
long, and half as wide, minutely ferrated, deep green, ra¬ 
ther roughifli to the touch, naked except a flight downi- 
nefs on the ribs at the back, reticulated on both Aides 
with copious veins, and furniflied with a pair of glands 
at the bafe. Footftaiks about one-third the length of the 
leaves, channelled above, downy near the extremity. 
Flower-ftalks axillary, folitary, racemofe, downy, fquare 
at the bafe, round above, generally bearing one female 
flower at the bafe; confpicuous for its quadrangular ger¬ 
men, thick ftyle, above an inch long, and large globofe 
fligmas; and above it in a long compound downy duller 
of numerous fmall male flowers. Some branches terminate 
in a duller of, partly axillary, female flowers only. All 
the flowers are green, and more lingular than beautiful. 
Fruit the flze of a fmall walnut, green, deprefled, with 
four fpreading, dilated, comprefled, rounded angles, the 
valves feparating elallically at the bafe. Seeds pale brown, 
large greatly comprefled, lenticular, fomewhat bordered, 
rugged with elevated veins. 
2. Plukenetia verrucofa, or warty plukenetia ; (Sm. in 
Ad. Upf. No. 2.) Angles of the capfule terminated by 
two tubercles. Native of Surinam, from whence Dr. 
P L U 
Smith’s fpecimens were fent to Linnaus, who inadver¬ 
tently referred them (in his Suppl. 421.) to the above 
original fpecies. The leaves indeed fcarceiy differ, except 
in being very minutely and diftantly toothed, rather than 
ferrated. The flowers are fomewhat fmaller. The cap- 
fules differ moll effentially, in being but one-fourth as 
large as the former, their lobes each tipped with a pair 
of warts, and not dilated nor keeled. The feeds moreover 
are obovate, not lenticular nor comprefled. 
3. Plukenetia corniculata, or horned plukenetia (Sin. 
in Aft. Upf. No. 3.) Angles of the capfule comprefled; 
tapering, pointed. Rumphius defcribes this as found 
wild in the woods of the diftrifl of Baguala, in Amboina, 
where it is known by the name of utta pela or iela. The 
Dutch were accuftomed to cultivate it, for the fake of its 
leaves, which, when boiled with the milk of the cocoa- 
nut, prove an agreeable and delicate vegetable. Their name 
for the plant was fajor-maccou. The ftems are long and 
flender, twining about the trunks of trees, and fending 
off fliort lateral alternate branches. Leaves much like 
both the foregoing, but, according to the plate and de~ 
feription, very evidently and diftinftly ferrated. Their 
feent is ftrong like elder, but their tafte fweet; at leaft 
when boiled, for the natural affinities of the genus lead 
us to prefume that none of its fpecies can be eaten with¬ 
out fuch preparation. Flowers fmall and green. There 
feem to be fometimes two female ones, with a Ample cluf- 
ter of numerous males above them. The fruit is very 
well deferibed by Rumphius, as refembling the Harry 
anife, Illicium, except in having but four cells,fometimes 
only three, inftead of fix. “ Each fegment,” fays he, “ is 
the flze of the feed of Ricinus, with a very thin point ; 
and thefe fruits, when ripe, fly afunder, like the Ricinus, 
with an explolion, throwing out their round comprefled 
or lenticular {harp-edged feeds.” Nothing can more 
precifely anfwer the character of Plukenetia; and Linnaeus 
confounded the plant in queftion with his Plukenetia vo¬ 
iubilis. Rees’s Cyclopcedia. 
PLUM f. [Saxon. A cuftotn has prevailed of wri¬ 
ting plumb, but improperly.] A fruit with a ftone. 
See Prunus. —Philofophers in vain enquired whether the 
fummum bonum conflfted of riches, bodily delights, vir¬ 
tue, or contemplation; they might as reafonably have 
difputed, whether the bed relifli were in apples, plums, or 
nuts. Locke. —Raifin ; grape dried in the fun.—I will 
dance, and eat plums at your wedding. Skakefpeare. — [In 
the cant of the city.] Thefum of one hundred thouftmd 
pounds.—By the prefent edidl, many a man in France 
will fweil into a plum, who fell feveral thoufand pounds 
fliort of it the day before. Addifon. 
The mifer nnift make up his plum, 
And dares not touch the hoarded fum. Prior. 
The perfon poffefiing the plum deferibed in the preceding 
fenfe_If any plum in the city will lay me an hundred and 
fifty thoufand pounds to twenty (hillings, which is an even 
bet, that I am not this fortunate man, I will take the 
Wager. Taller, N° 124.—A kind of play, called How many 
plums fora penny? Ainfioortii. 
American Plum. See Chrysobalanus. 
Bay Plum. See Guaiava. 
Jamaica or Hog Plum. See Spondias. 
Indian Date-Vhv m. See Diospyros. 
Maiden Plum. See Camocladia. 
PLUM, adj. The old word for plump. —The Italians 
proportion it [beauty] bigand plum ; the Spaniards, fpynie 
and lanke; and, amonglt us, one would have her white, 
another brown. P/orio's Tr. of Montaigne, 1613. 
PLUM-C A'KE,y; Cake made with raifins, and baked : 
He cramm’d them, till their guts did ake. 
With caudle, cuftard, and plum cake. Hudibras. 
PLUM ISLAND, an ifland on the coaft of Maffachu- 
fetts, about nine miles long, and half a mile broad, extend¬ 
ing from the entrance of Ipfwich river fouth nearly a 
north courfe to the mouth of Merrimack river, and fepa- 
rated 
