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.
&fist; 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.]
Plant bug (Zoöl.), any one of
numerous hemipterous insects which injure the foliage of plants, as
Lygus lineolaris, which damages wheat and trees. --
Plant cutter (Zoöl.), a South
American passerine bird of the genus Phytotoma, family
Phytotomidæ. It has a serrated bill with which it cuts
off the young shoots and buds of plants, often doing much injury.
-- Plant louse (Zoöl.), any small
hemipterous insect which infests plants, especially those of the
families Aphidæ and Psyllidæ; an
aphid.
Plant (?), v. t. [imp. & p.
p. Planted; p. pr. & vb. n.
Planting.] [AS. plantian, L. plantare. See
Plant, n.] 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 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.
