Plano-convex
(Pla"no-con"vex) a. [Plano- + convex.] Plane or flat on one side, and convex on the
other; as, a plano-convex lens. See Convex, and Lens.
Plano-horizontal
(Pla"no-hor`i*zon"tal) a. [Plano- + horizontal.] Having a level horizontal surface or
position. Lee.
Planometer
(Pla*nom"e*ter) n. [Plano- + -meter. Cf. Planimeter.] An instrument for gauging or testing
a plane surface. See Surface gauge, under Surface.
Planometry
(Pla*nom"e*try) n. (Mech.) The art or process of producing or gauging a plane surface.
Plano-orbicular
(Pla"no-or*bic"u*lar) a. [Plano- + orbicular.] Plane or flat on one side, and spherical
on the other.
Planorbis
(||Pla*nor"bis) n. [NL., fr. L. planus flat + orbis a circle.] (Zoöl.) Any fresh-water air-breathing
mollusk belonging to Planorbis and other allied genera, having shells of a discoidal form.
Plano-subulate
(Pla"no-su"bu*late) a. [Plano- + subulate.] Smooth and awl-shaped. See Subulate.
Plant
(Plant) n. [AS. plante, L. planta.]
1. A vegetable; an organized living being, generally without feeling and voluntary motion, and having,
when complete, a root, stem, and leaves, though consisting sometimes only of a single leafy expansion,
or a series of cellules, or even a single cellule.
Plants are divided by their structure and methods of reproduction into two series, phænogamous or flowering
plants, which have true flowers and seeds, and cryptogamous or flowerless plants, which have no
flowers, and reproduce by minute one-celled spores. In both series are minute and simple forms and
others of great size and complexity.
As to their mode of nutrition, plants may be considered as self-supporting and dependent. Self-supporting
plants always contain chlorophyll, and subsist on air and moisture and the matter dissolved in moisture,
and as a general rule they excrete oxygen, and use the carbonic acid to combine with water and form
the material for their tissues. Dependent plants comprise all fungi and many flowering plants of a parasitic
or saprophytic nature. As a rule, they have no chlorophyll, and subsist mainly or wholly on matter already
organized, thus utilizing carbon compounds already existing, and not excreting oxygen. But there are
plants which are partly dependent and partly self-supporting.
The movements of climbing plants, of some insectivorous plants, of leaves, stamens, or pistils in certain
plants, and the ciliary motion of zoöspores, etc., may be considered a kind of voluntary motion.
2. A bush, or young tree; a sapling; hence, a stick or staff. "A plant of stubborn oak." Dryden.
3. The sole of the foot. [R.] "Knotty legs and plants of clay." B. Jonson.
4. (Com.) The whole machinery and apparatus employed in carrying on a trade or mechanical business; also,
sometimes including real estate, and whatever represents investment of capital in the means of carrying
on a business, but not including material worked upon or finished products; as, the plant of a foundry, a
mill, or a railroad.
5. A plan; an artifice; a swindle; a trick. [Slang]
It was n't a bad plant, that of mine, on Fikey.
Dickens. 6. (Zoöl.) (a) An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from one of natural growth. (b) A young
oyster suitable for transplanting. [Local, U.S.]
