P L U 
rated from the main land by a narrow found called Plum- 
ifland-river, which is fordable in many placesat low water. 
It confifts for the mod part of fand blown into ludicrous 
heaps, and covered with bullies bearing the beach-plum. 
On the north end ftand the light-houfes, and the remains 
of a wooden fort, built during the war for the defence of 
the harbour. On the fea-fhore of this ifland, and on 
Salisbury beach, the Merrimack Humane Society has erect¬ 
ed feveral fmall houfes, furnithed with fuel and other 
conveniences, for the relief of mariners who may be fhip- 
wrecked on this coaft. The north end lies in lat. 43 0 4' 
N. and Ion. 7 0 47' W. 
PLUM-PI'E, f. A pie with plums in it, and baked. 
PLUM-POR'RIDGE,/. Porridge with plums in it.—A 
rigid diffenter, who dined at his houfe on Chriftmas-day, 
eat very plentifully of his plum-porridge. Addifon. 
PLUM-PUD'DING, /’. Pudding with raifins in it; and 
boiled in a cloth. An Englifh dilh.—No man of the molt 
rigid virtue gives offence by any excefles in plum-pudding. 
7 alter, N Q 255. 
PLU'MAGE,/. [French.] Feathers; a fuit of feathers. 
—The plumage of birds exceeds the pilolity of beads. 
Bacon. 
Say, will the falcon, (looping from above, 
Smit with her varying ^/towage, fpare the dove ? Pope. 
PLU'MARTIN, a town of France, department of La 
Vienne, with 1200 inhabitants. 
PLUMAU', a town of Auftria : feven miles north-weft 
of Hodren. 
PLUMB, f. [plomb, Fr. plumbum, Lat.] A plummet; 
a leaden weight let down at the end of a line.—Your 
plumbs fitted to your cork; your cork to the condition 
of the river, that is, the fwiftnefs or flownefs of if. Cot¬ 
ton's Complete Angler. 
PLUMB, adv. [« piombo, Ital.] perpendicularly to the 
horizon.— If all thefe atoms fhould defcend plumb down 
with equal velocity, being all perfectly folid and imporous, 
and the vacuum not refilling their motion, they would 
never the one overtake the other. Ray on the Creation. 
Vacuity he meets all unawares; 
Fluttering his pennons vain , plumb down he falls- Milton. 
It is ufed for any fudden defcent, a plumb or perpendicu¬ 
lar being the fhort paffage of a falling body. It is fome- 
times pronounced plump. —Is it not a fad thing to fall 
thus plumb into the grave ? well one minute, and dead 
the next. Collier. 
To PLUMB, v. a. To found ; to fearch by a line with a 
weight at its end.—The mod experienced feamen plumbed 
the depth of the channel. Swift. —To regulate any work 
by the plummet. 
PLUMB, a towr.fhip of the United States, in Allegany 
county, Pennfylvania. Population 1174. 
PLUMB-I'SLAND, an illand on the north-eaft coaft of 
Long Ifiand, in the State of New York, annexed to South- 
hold, in Suffolk county. It contains about 800 acres, 
and fupports feven families. It is fertile, and produces 
wheat, corn, butter, cheefe, and wool. It is three-fourths 
of a mile from the eaftern point of Southhold. This ifland, 
with the fandy point of Gardner’s ifiand, form the en¬ 
trance of Gardner’s bay. 
PLUM'B-LINE, J'. A term among artificers for a per¬ 
pendicular line. It is thus called, becaufe ufually de- 
fcribed by means of a plummet, or leaden weight.—If the 
plumb-line hang juft upon the perpendicular, when the 
level is fet fiat down upon the work, the work is level. 
Moron's Meek. Ex. 
PLUM'B-POINT (Great), a point [on the fouth coaft 
of the ifland of Jamaica. It forms the fouth-eaft limit of 
the peninfula ot Port Royal, which (belters the harbour 
of Kingfton.— Little Plumb-Point lies weftward of the 
former, towards the town of Port Royal,on the fouth fide 
of the peninfula. 
PLUMBA'GO,/. [ plumbum , Lat.-lead, from the colour 
of it.] An ufeful mineral, vulgarly but improperly called 
P L U 703 
Black-Lead. See Graphites plumbago, under the article 
Mineralogy, vol. xv. p. 477, 8. 
A valuable mine of Graphites was difeovered, in the 
fummer of the year 1817, in Glenfthrathfarar, about thirty 
miles from Invernefs. It promifes to be of much impor¬ 
tance, fince there are we believe but two mines wrought 
in the ifland for the produftion of this ufeful article, of 
which not only our black-lead pencils, as they are erro- 
neoufly called, are made, but the luftre given to many 
fubftances formed of call iron. The mine is in a fchiftofe 
rock, clofe to the Farar, and crops out to an extent of 
not lefs than fifty feet in five different feams, fome of 
them from twelve to eighteen inches in thicknefs. The 
feams appear to converge into one, enlarge, and improve 
in quality, as the workmen penetrate deeper. 
PLUMBA'GO, J. [evidently derived from plumbum, 
lead ; but whether it alludes to any colouring quality in 
the plant, or to the hue of its foliage, critics are not 
agreed.] Leadwort ; in botany, a genus of the clafs 
pentandria, order monogynia, nat. order of plumbagines, 
Jujf. Generic characters—Calyx : perianth one-leafed, 
ovate-oblong, tubular, five-cornered, rugged, with a five¬ 
toothed mouth, permanent. Corolla : one-petalled, fun¬ 
nel-form ; tube cylindrical, narrower at top, longer than 
the calyx; border five-cleft, from ereSt-fpreading, with 
ovate fegments. NeCtary of five very fmall acuminate 
valves in the bottom of the corolla, inclofing the germ. 
Stamina : filaments five, awl-fliaped, free within the tube 
of the corolla, placed on the valves of the nedlary. An¬ 
thers fmall, oblong, verfatile. Piftilluin : germ ovate, very 
fmall; ftyle fimple, the length of the tube; ftigma five- 
cleft, (lender. Pericnrpium: capfule oblong, five-cornered, 
terminated by the permanent ftyle, one-celied, five-val ved, 
clothed with the calyx. Seed fingle, oblong, fattened to 
a thread, pendulous.— Effential Character. Corolla fun¬ 
nel-form; (lamina inferred into feales inclofing the bafe 
of tlie coroila ; ftigma five-cleft; feed one, oblong, tuni- 
cated. There are eight fpecies. 
1. Plumbago Europaea, or European leadwort: leaves 
embracing, lanceolate, rugged. Root perennial, white, 
ftriking deep into the ground. Stalks many, (lender, three 
feet and a half high, and channelled. Leaves three inches 
long and two broad, fmooth, entire, of a greyifh-green 
colour. The upper part of the Halks fends out many 
(lender fide-branches, which have fmall leaves on them. 
Thefe and alfo the principal llalks are terminated by 
tufts of blue flowqrs, which are fmall, and fucceeded by 
rough hairy feeds. Height according to Villars, one foot. 
Stem ereft, fmooth, angular, with panicled branches. 
Leaves alternate, fmooth, lead-coloured, toothletted at 
the edge or quite entire, having two appendicles at the 
bafe; the lower ftem-leaves blunt; the upper branch- 
leaves (harp. It is reprefented on the plate, at fig. 2. and 
one of the lower ftem-leaves at b. 
This plant, the only European fpecies, is a native of the 
fouth of Europe, and the kingdom of Tunis in Africa. 
Cultivated in 1597, by Gerarde. It feldom flowers iu 
England till towards the end of October, and, unlefs the 
autumn proves warm, does not flower at all; and never 
produces ripe feeds : but about Paris it grows in the open 
air, and refilled the winters of 1789 and 1796. It is call¬ 
ed dentellaria in Latin, and tooth wort in Englifh, from 
its property of curing the tooth-ach ; being of a hot cauf- 
tic nature, like pellitory of Spain. The French call it 
malherbe, and herbe it la teigne, itch-wort, as it is faid to 
cure that diforder very quickly. In the year 1779, ^ )e 
Medical Society of Paris, awarded a prize to M. Sumiere, 
a phyfician of Marignan in Provence, for the communica¬ 
tion of a mode of applying it without any inconvenience 
from its caufticity ; perfons commiflioned by the fociety 
having tried a multitude of experiments to afeertain its 
effects. Villars recommends two ounces of the plant 
boiled in four ounces of olive-oil to cure the itch ; the 
fediment is tied up in a bag of linen, and the patient is 
rubbed with it, moiftening the bag from time to time with 
