Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/207

 PLUMIER

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PLUNKET

the English College, Rome, 1731-34; superior at Ghent, 1735-39; and rector of St. Omers, 1739-42. He translated Father Segneri's "Devout Client of the Blessed Virgin", and wrote the preface to it. He died at the novitiate of Watten.

Foley, Records of the English Province of the Society of Jesus, IV, VII.

E. I. Devitt.

Plumier, Charles (botanical abbreviation, Plum.), French botanist, b. at Marseilles, 20 April, 1646; d. at Puerto de Sta Maria near Cadiz, 20 November, 1704. At the age of si.xteen he entered the order of the Minims. He devoted himself to the study of mathe- matics and physics, made physical instruments, and was an excellent draughtsman, painter, and turner. On being sent to the French monastery of Trinita dei Monti at Rome, Plumier studied botany with great zeal under two members of the order, and especially under the well-known Cistercian botanist, Paolo Boccone. After his return to France he became a pupil of Tournefort, whom he accompanied on botan- ical excursions. He also explored the coasts of Pro- vence and Languedoc. His work, of permanent value for the science of botany, began in 1689, when, by order of the government, he accompanied Surian to the French Antilles. As this first journey proved very successful, Plumier was appointed royal botanist; in 1693, by command of Louis XIV, he made his sec- ond journey, and in 169.5 his third journey to the An- tilles and Central America. While in the West Indies he was greatly aided in his work by the Dominican Labat. In 1704, when about to start on his fourth journey, intending to visit the home of the true cin- chona tree in Peru, he was taken ill with pleurisy and died. He is the most important of the botanical explorers of his time. All natural scientists of the eighteenth century spoke of him with admiration. According to Cuvier he was "perhaps the most indus- trious investigator of nature", while Haller said, " vir ad incrementum rei herbariie natus" (a man born to extend the knowledge of botany). Tournefort and Linna?us named in his honour the genus Plumeria, which belongs to the family of the Apocynacece and is indigenous in about forty species to Central America; it is now called Plumiera, with the name of Plumieroi- dece for its first sub-family. Plumier accomplished all that he did in fifteen years (1689-1704); his labours resulted in collections, descriptions, and drawings.

His first work was, "Description des plantcs de r.\merique" (Paris, 1693); it contained 108 plates, half of which represented ferns. This was followed by "Nova plantarum americanarum genera" (Paris, 1703-04), with 40 plates; in this work about one hun- dred genera, with about seven hundred species, were redescribed. At a later date Linna-us adopted in his system, almost without change, these and other newly described genera arranged by Plumier. Plumier left a work in French and Latin ready to be printed en- titled "Traito des fougeres de I'Amtfrique" (Paris, 170.5), which contained 172 excellent plates. The publication "Filicetum Americanum" (Paris, 1703), with 222 plates, was compiled from those already mentioned. Plumier also wrote another book of an entirely different character on turning, "L'Art de tourner" (Lyons, 1701; Paris, 1749); this was trans- lated into Russian by Peter the Great; the manu- script of the translation is at St. Petersburg. At his death Plumier left thirty-one manuscript volumes containing descriptions, and about 6000 drawings, 4000 of which were of plants, while the remainder reproduced American animals of nearly all classes, especially birds and fish. The botanist Boerhave had 508 of these drawings copied at Paris; these were published later by Burmann, Professor of Botany at Amsterdam, under the title: "Plantarum americana- rum, quas olim Carolus Plumierus detcxit", fasc. I-X

(Amsterdam, 1755-60), containing 262 plates. Plu- mier also wrote treatises for the "Journal des Sa- vants" and for the "Memoires de Trevoux". By his observations in Martinique, Plumier proved that the cochineal belongs to the animal kingdom and should be classed among the insects.

Halleh, Bibliotheca botanica. 11 (Zurich, 1772); Sprengel, Geschichte der Botanik, II (Leipzig, 181S) ; Jbssen, Botanik d. Gcgenwart u. Vorzeit (Leipzig, 1864).

Joseph Rompel.

Plunket, Oliver, Venerable, Archbishop of Ar- magh and Primate of all Ireland, b. at Loughcrew near Oldcastle, County Meath, Ireland, 1629; d. 11 July, 1681. His is the brightest name in the Irish Church throughout the whole period of persecution. He was connected by birth with the families which had just then been ennobled, the Earls of Roscommon and Fingall, as well as with Lords Louth and Dunsany. Till his sixteenth year, his education was attended to by Patrick Plunket, Abbot of St. Mary's, Dublin, brother of the first Earl of Fingall, afterwards Bishop, successively, of Ardagh and Meath. He witnessed the first triumphs of the Irish Confederates, and, as an aspirant to the priesthood, set out for Rome in 1645, under the care of Father Scarampo, of the Roman Ora- tory. As a student of the Irish College of Rome, which some twenty years before had been founded by Cardi- nal Ludovisi, his record was particularly brilliant. The Rector, in after years, attested that he "devoted himself with such ardour to jihilosophy, theology, and mathematics, that in the Roman College of the Society of Jesus he was justly ranked amongst the foremost in talent, diligence, and progress in his studies, and he pursued with abundant fruit the course of civil and canon law at the Roman Sapienza, and everywhere, at all times, was a model of gentleness, integrity, and piety." Promoted to the priesthood in 1654, Dr. Plunket was deputed by the Irish bishops to act as their representative in Rome. Throughout the period of the Cromwellian usuri)ation and the first years of Charles II's reign he most effectually pleaded the cause of our suffering Church, whilst at the same time he discharged the duties of theological professor at the College of Propaganda. In the Congregation of Propaganda, 9 July, 1669, he was appointed to the primatial see of Armagh, and was consecrated, 30 Nov., at Ghent, in Belgium, by the Bishop of Ghent, assisted by the Bishop of Ferns and another bishop. The pallium was granted him in Consistory 28 July, 1670.

Dr. Plunket lingered for some time in London, using his influence to mitigate the rigour of the admin- istration of the anti-Catholic laws in Ireland, and it was only in the middle of March, 1670, that he entered on his apostolate in Armagh. From the very outset he was most zealous in the exercise of the sacred min- istry. Within three months he had administered the Sacrament of Confirmation to about 10,000 of the faithful, some of them being sixty years old, and, writing to Rome in December, 1673, he was able to announce that "during the past four years", he had confirmed no fewer than 48,655 people. To bring this Sacrament within the reach of the suffering faith- ful he had to undergo the severest hardships, often with no other food than a little oaten bread; he had to seek out their abodes on the mountains and in the woods, and, as a rule, it was under the broad canopy of heaven that the Sacrament was administered, both flock and pastor being exposed to the wind and rain. He made extraordinary efforts to bring the blessings of education within the reach of the Catholic youth. In effecting this during the short interval of peace that marked the beginning of his episcopate his efforts were most successful. He often refers in his letters to the hi?h school which he opened at Drogheda, at this time the second city in the kingdom. He invited Jesuit Fathers from Rome to take charge of it, and