| plant | 1. To put in the ground and cover, as seed for growth; as, to plant maize. 2. To set in the ground for growth, as a young tree, or a vegetable with roots. "Thou shalt not plant thee a grove of any trees." (Deut. Xvi. 21) 3. To furnish, or fit out, with plants; as, to plant a garden, an orchard, or a forest. 4. To engender; to generate; to set the germ of. "It engenders choler, planteth anger." (Shak) 5. To furnish with a fixed and organised 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) Origin: AS. Plantian, L. Plantare. See Plant. To perform the act of planting. "I have planted; Apollos watered." (1 Cor. Iii. 6) 1. A vegetable; an organised 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, phaenogamous 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 organised, 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 zoospores, 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." 3. The sole of the foot. "Knotty legs and plants of clay." 4. 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. "It was n't a bad plant, that of mine, on Fikey." (Dickens) 6. <zoology> An oyster which has been bedded, in distinction from one of natural growth. A young oyster suitable for transplanting. Plant bug, any small hemipterous insect which infests plants, especially those of the families Aphidae and Psyllidae; an aphid. Origin: AS. Plante, L. Planta. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
|---|---|
| plant antitoxin | Antitoxin specific for a phytotoxin. (05 Mar 2000) |
| plant association | A grouping of plant species, or a plant community, that recurs across the landscape. Plant associations are used as indicators of environmental conditions such as temperature, moisture, light, etc. (05 Dec 1998) |
| plant-cane | A stalk or shoot of sugar cane of the first growth from the cutting. The growth of the second and following years is of inferior quality, and is called rattoon. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| plant casein | <plant biology> A prolamine, about 25% l-glutamic acid residues, found in oats (Avena) and in various legumes; considered highly nutritious. Synonym: legumin, plant casein. (05 Mar 2000) |
| plant community | <botany, ecology> The plant populations existing in a shared habitat or environment. (31 Dec 1997) |
| plant components | The anatomical components of a plant, including seeds. (12 Dec 1998) |
| plant dermatitis | See: dermatitis venenata. Primary irritant dermatitis, a frequently cumulative reaction of irritation on exposure of the skin to substances which are toxic to epidermal or connective tissue cells; lesions are usually erythematous and papular, but can be purulent or necrotic, depending on the nature of the toxic material applied. (05 Mar 2000) |
| plant-eating | Eating, or subsisting on, plants; as, a plant-eating beetle. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| plant epidermis | A thin layer of cells forming the outer integument of seed plants and ferns. (12 Dec 1998) |
| plant extracts | Concentrated pharmaceutical preparations of plants obtained by removing the active constituents therefrom with a suitable menstruum, evaporating all or nearly all the solvent, and adjusting the residual mass or powder to a prescribed standard. (12 Dec 1998) |
| plant families and groups | Groupings that include specific plants within larger families or divisions. (12 Dec 1998) |
| plant growth regulators | Any of the hormones produced naturally in plants and active in controlling growth and other functions. There are three primary classes: auxins, cytokinins, and gibberellins. (12 Dec 1998) |
| plant growth substances | <plant biology> Substances that, at low concentration, influence plant growth and differentiation. Formerly referred to as plant hormones or phytohormones, these terms are now suspect because some aspects of the hormone concept, notably action at a distance from the site of synthesis, do not necessarily apply in plants. Also called plant growth regulators. The major classes are absicisic acid, auxin, cytokinin, ethylene and gibberellin, others include steroid and phenol derivatives. (31 Dec 1997) |
| plant indican | 1. <chemistry> A glucoside obtained from woad (indigo plant) and other plants, as a yellow or light brown sirup. It has a nauseous bitter taste, a decomposes or drying. By the action of acids, ferments, etc, it breaks down into sugar and indigo. It is the source of natural indigo. 2. <physiology> An indigo-forming substance, found in urine, and other animal fluids, and convertible into red and blue indigo (urrhodin and uroglaucin). Chemically, it is indoxyl sulphate of potash, C8H6NSO4K, and is derived from the indol formed in the alimentary canal. Synonym: uroxanthin. See: Indigo. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |