Part 320

Shak.

5. To furnish with a fixed and organized population; to settle; to establish; as, to plant a colony.

Planting of countries like planting of woods.

Bacon.

6. To introduce and establish the principles or seeds of; as, to plant Christianity among the heathen.

7. To set firmly; to fix; to set and direct, or point; as, to plant cannon against a fort; to plant a standard in any place; to plant one's feet on solid ground; to plant one's fist in another's face.

8. To set up; to install; to instate.

We will plant some other in the throne.

Shak.

Plant, v. i. To perform the act of planting.

I have planted; Apollos watered.

1 Cor. iii. 6.

Plant"a*ble (?), a. Capable of being planted; fit to be planted. B. Edwards.

Plant"age (?), n. A word used once by Shakespeare to designate plants in general, or anything that is planted.

As true as steel, as plantage to the moon.

Shak. (Troil. iii. sc. 2).

Plan"tain (?), n. [Cf. F. plantain- arbre, plantanier, Sp. pl·ntano, pl·tano; prob. same word as plane tree.] 1. (Bot.) A treelike perennial herb (Musa paradisiaca) of tropical regions, bearing immense leaves and large clusters of the fruits called plantains. See Musa.

2. The fruit of this plant. It is long and somewhat cylindrical, slightly curved, and, when ripe, soft, fleshy, and covered with a thick but tender yellowish skin. The plantain is a staple article of food in most tropical countries, especially when cooked.

Plantain cutter, or Plantain eater (Zoˆl.), any one of several large African birds of the genus Musophaga, or family MusophagidÊ, especially Musophaga violacea. See Turaco. They are allied to the cuckoos. -- Plantain squirrel (Zoˆl.), a Java squirrel (Sciurus plantani) which feeds upon plantains. -- Plantain tree (Bot.), the treelike herb Musa paradisiaca. See def. 1 (above).

Plan"tain, n. [F., fr. L. plantago. Cf. Plant.] (Bot.) Any plant of the genus Plantago, but especially the P. major, a low herb with broad spreading radical leaves, and slender spikes of minute flowers. It is a native of Europe, but now found near the abode of civilized man in nearly all parts of the world.

Indian plantain. (Bot.) See under Indian. -- Mud plantain, a homely North American aquatic plant (Heteranthera reniformis), having broad, reniform leaves. -- Rattlesnake plantain, an orchidaceous plant (Goodyera pubescens), with the leaves blotched and spotted with white. -- Ribwort plantain. See Ribwort. -- Robin's plantain, the Erigeron bellidifolium, a common daisylike plant of North America. -- Water plantain, a plant of the genus Alisma, having acrid leaves, and formerly regarded as a specific against hydrophobia. Loudon.

Plant"al (?), a. [L. planta a plant.] Belonging to plants; as, plantal life. [Obs.] Dr. H. More.

Plan"tar (?), a. [L. plantaris, fr. planta the sole of the foot.] (Anat.) Of or pertaining to the sole of the foot; as, the plantar arteries.

Plan*ta"tion (?), n. [L. plantatio: cf. F. plantation.] 1. The act or practice of planting, or setting in the earth for growth. [R.]

2. The place planted; land brought under cultivation; a piece of ground planted with trees or useful plants; esp., in the United States and West Indies, a large estate appropriated to the production of the more important crops, and cultivated by laborers who live on the estate; as, a cotton plantation; a coffee plantation.

3. An original settlement in a new country; a colony.

While these plantations were forming in Connecticut.

B. Trumbull.