Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/237

Rh P L P L 227 (if progress and development in a language ought so to be called) ] of the &quot; Silver Age.&quot; That he imitated Cicero both in his style and his eloquence is avowed by himself. 1 As a friend of Tacitus, whom he often mentions, he predicts the &quot;immortality&quot; of the books of his history, and he even proffered his services in reading Tacitus s MSS. 2 He writes also to Suetonius and to Cornelius Ncpos, the latter of whom he speaks of as &quot;vir gravissimus, doctissimus, disertissimus ; &quot; the former he praises to Trajan, 3 in asking for him tlwjus trium libcrorum, as &quot; probissimum honestis- simum eruditissimum virum. &quot; Pliny s Epistles were first printed in 1471, but incomplete, as was the Aldine edition of 1508. A full account of the MSS. and editions is given by H. Keil in his preface ; among the best editions of later times are that of Cortius, published in 1734; after his death that of G. H. Scliaefer (who reprinted with corrections, in 1805, the text of Gesner and Gierig, 1800), and that of Maurice Docring, 1843. The latest and best is the Teubner text of H. Keil (Leipsic, 1865, 12mo), with full indices and brief introductory notice of the most important different readings. (F. A. P.) P:LOCK (PLOTSK), a government of Russian Poland, on the right bank of the Vistula, having the provinces of Western and Eastern Prussia on the north, and the Polish provinces of Lomza on the east and Warsaw on the south ; its area is 4200 square miles. Its flat surface, 350 to 500 feet above the sea-level, gently rises towards the north, where it merges in the Baltic coast-ridge of the Prussian lake district. Only a few hills reach 600 feet above the sea, while the broad valley of the Vistula has an elevation of but 130 to 150 feet. In the west district of Lipno broad terraces covered with forests, small lakes, and ponds, and very poor in vegetation, descend from the Baltic lake- district towards the plains of Ptock ; and in the central district of Mtawa extensive marshes cover the upper basin of the Wkra. The Vistula borders the province on the south, almost from Warsaw to Thorn, receiving the Skrwa and Wkra, which last rises on the Prussian frontier, and, flowing south-east, joins the Narew close to its confluence with the Vistula, in the south-eastern corner of Ptock. The Drwe.ca, or Drewenz, flows along the north-west boundary of Ptock, while several small tributaries of the Narew water the north-eastern district of Ciechanow. Petty lakes and ponds dot the plains in the west, and the whole country bears traces of a very wide exten sion of lakes during the post-Glacial period. Peat-bogs, used of late for fuel, and marshes containing bog-iron, fill many depressions in the north, while the more elevated parts of the plains are covered with fertile clays, or a kind of &quot; black-earth. &quot; Lacustrine post-Glacial deposits cover all depressions in the thick sheet of boulder clay, with Scandinavian erratic boulders, which extends everywhere over the Tertiary sands and marls,- these last containing masses of silicated wood and lignite. Layers of gypsum are found in the hills on the Vistula. The soil is very fertile in several parts of the province, especially in the district of Lipno and closer to the Vistula, and agriculture is the chief occupation of the inhabitants even in the towns. The chief crops are, however, rye, oats, and barley; but wheat gives good crops in some parts of the province ; beet-root is also cultivated for sugar, especi ally on the great estates of the west, where machinery finds application to agriculture on a large scale ; in the north the property is much divided, and the szlachta- landholders, very numerous in Ciechanow, are far from prosperous. The average crops of late years may be valued at 1,700,000 quarters of corn and 1,575,000 quarters of potatoes. The forests, which formerly covered very extensive tracts, are much destroyed now, but still Ptock is one of the best wooded provinces of Poland. The population of the province of Ptock, which was but 490,950 in 1873, reached 538,150 in 1881, and must be now about 557,000. It is Polish throughout, but contains a large admixture of Jews (more than 11 per cent.) and of Germans, the number of whom is yearly increasing. Besides agriculture, the inhabitants find a per- 1 Of. L 5, 12; iv. 8, 4. 2 See vii. 20; viii. 7 ; vii. 33, 1 ; ix. 14. 3 Ev. PI. et Traj. 94. manent source of occupation in shipping on the Vistula, some mining, and various domestic trades, such as the fabrication of wooden cars, sledges, and wheels, and textile industry. The whole value of manufactures in 1879 was 211,000 (flour mills 68,900, saw-mills 17,500, sugar works 45,700, and iron works 32,200), and 1750 hands were employed. There is some export trade, especially in the Lipno district ; but its development is limited by the lack of facilities of communication, the best being those offered by the Vistula. The railway from AVarsaw to Dantzic, via Ciechanow and Mfawa, will now help the eastern part of the province. Since the Prussian occupation, and perhaps under the influence of Prussian neighbourhood, the province of Ptock is somewhat better supplied with primary schools, especially in its northern districts, than other provinces of Poland ; still there are only 272 primary schools (exclusive of the Jewish hcders), with 15,000 scholars. There are two colleges for boys and girls, and one semi nary for teachers at Wymysiy. The province is divided into eight districts, the chief towns of which are Ptock (22,140 inhabitants), Ciechanow (5800), Lipno (5650), Mtawa (10,050), Plousk (6350), Przasnysz (7200), Eypin (3350), and Sierpce (6850). Novogeorgievsk, or Modlin, on the Vistula, 12 miles below its confluence with the Narew, is a fortress of the first rank ; Wyszgorod (4400) has considerable trade in corn. History. After the second dismemberment of Poland in 1793, what is now the government of Ptock became part of Prussia. It fell under Russian dominion after the treaty of Vienna, and, in the division of that time into five provinces, extended over the western part of the present province of Lomza, which was created in 1864 from the Ostrolenka and Pultusk districts of Piock together with parts of the province of Augustowo. PiOCK, capital of the above province, is situated on the right bank of the Vistula, 60 miles to the west-north west of Warsaw. It is well built of stone on a high hill facing the river, and has an ancient cathedral. It is now of importance only as the seat of the provincial adminis tration; and its population, which is partly agricultural, increases very slowly. In May 1883 it had 19,640 inhabit ants, of whom 7135 were Jews and about 450 Germans. The Russian garrison numbered 2500. Ptock has two colleges for boys and girls, with 864 male and 496 female scholars, and twelve primary schools (exclusive of the Jewish heelers), with 890 scholars. Its manufactures are insignificant (not above 100,000 roubles yearly), and there is some trade in agricultural produce. PLOTINUS. See NEOPLATONISM, vol. xvii. p. 335 sq. PLOUGH. See AGRICULTURE, vol. i. p. 311. PLOVER, French Pluvier, Old French Plovie)-, which doubtless has its origin in the Latin pluvia, rain (as witness the German equivalent Regenpfeifer, Rain-fifer) ; but the connexion of ideas between the words therein involved, so that the former should have become a bird s name, is doubtful. Belon (1555) says that the name Pluvier is bestowed &quot; pour ce qu on le prend mieux en temps pluvieux qu en nulle autre saison,&quot; which is not in accordance with modern observation, for in rainy weather Plovers are wilder and harder to approach than in fine. Others have thought it is from the spotted (as though with rain-drops) upper plumage of two of the commonest species of Plovers, to which the name especially belongs the Ckaradrius pluvialis of Linnaeus, or Golden Plover, and the Squatarola helvetica of recent ornithologists, or Grey Plover. Both these birds are very similar in general appearance, but the latter is the larger and has an aborted hind-toe on each foot. 4 Its axillary feathers are also black, while in the Golden Plover they are pure white, and this difference often affords a ready means of distinguishing the two species when on the wing, even at a considerable distance. The Grey Plover is a bird of almost circum- polar range, breeding in the far north of America, Asia, and eastern Europe, frequenting in spring and autumn the coasts of the more temperate parts of each continent, and generally retiring further southward in winter examples 4 But for this really unimportant distinction both birds could doubtless have been kept by ornithologists in the same genus, for they agree in most other structural characters. As it is they have long been sundered.