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* PLANTIN. 95 PLASMOLYSIS. PLANTIN", pUi.N'tax', Christophe (1514-89). An eminent French printer, born at Saint-Aver- tin. In 1555 he set up at Antwerp a printing establislinient whieli soon became one of tlie most celebrated of the time. The most noted of all his publications is the Biblia Polyglotta (8 vols., 15ti8-73). His books were noted for the accuracy of their text aud the beauty of their topography and embellishments. Consult Debacker and Rue- lens, Aiinales Plantiniennes, 1555-89 (Paris, 1805), and the Life by Rooses (Antwerp, 1892). PLANTIN-MORETUS, JIusee. An impor- tant museum in Antwerp containing a rare col- lection, illustrating the art of printing. The names are those of Cliristophe Plantin, and his son-in-law and successor, iloretus. Plantin's printing office after 1579 was carried on in the present building until 1875, when the house with its contents was purchased by the city. The museum includes a composing room, printing room, and library, with interesting apparatus and specimens of ancient work, and the residence of Plantin, with antique tapestry, furniture, paint- ings, and porcelains. PLANT-LOUSE. See Aphid. PLANT PHYSIOLOGY. The study of the fuiiitioiis of plant organs. See Physiology of Plants. PLANTS (AS. i^Uintc, from Lat. pUuita, plant). In law, specifically, such vegetable growths as are not included iu the terms emble- ments, crops, or gi-owing trees, except nursery trees. The term includes bushes, shrubs, and nur- sery trees. Where plants are set out by a land- lord they become part of the real estate and can- not be removed by a tenant at the termination of his lease, although he may alter the position of them, or remove a reasonable number of them in the ordinary course of husbandry during his term. Where a tenant sets out plants they become at- tached to the real estate, unless they are for the purpose of temporary growth and sale, as the trees and other plants in a nursery. For ex- anijile. a tenant could not remove, at the termina- tion of his lease, berry bushes which were intended to produce annual crops, although he had set them out at his own expense. See Emblements. PLANTS, Fossil. See Paleobotany. PLANT SOCIETY, or Association, or Com- MUNITV. An assemblage of plants growing in a conunon liabitat under similar life conditions. See Ecology ; Distribution of Plants. PLAQUEMINE, plak'nren'. A town and the parish seat of IberviHe Parish, La., 85 miles west- northwest of New Orleans; on the Mississippi River, and on the Texas and Pacific Railroad (Map: Louisiana, D .3). It has considerable trade in cotton, lumber, and sugar, and manufac- tures of lumber and lumber products. The water- works are owned and operated bv the municipal- ity. Population, in 1890, 3222 ; "in 1900, 3590. PLASENCIA, pla-sen'the-,a. An ancient but nnich decayed town of Western Spain, in the Province of Caceres (Map: Spain. B 2). It is very picturesquely situated on a rocky promon- tory on the bank of the Jerte, and is surrounded by the remains of a double line of walls with 68 towers. An aqueduct of 53 arches leads into the town, where there is a Gothic cathedral, unfin- ished and disfigured by late additions. Plasencia was once a flourishing city; its population in 1900 was only 7965. PLASMA (Lat., from Gk. irMaixa, formation, molded figure, from TrXdo-deir, ;<?'(.s-.sei«, to form). The fluid portion of the blood, rich in proteids. After the removal of the blood from the arteries and veins a part of these proteids separate by coagulation and form the blood-clot, which is composed of fibrin, leaving a fluid poor in pro- teids, and called the blood-serum. The term is also given by Haeckel to the proto- plasm of cells surrounding the nucleus; or in the case of the nionera, which are supposed to have no nucleus, to the unorganized protoplasm constitut- ing such organisms. Cells are defined by Haeckel as bits of plasma containing a nucleus. PLASMA. A crypto-crystalline variety of quartz that is of a bright green to dark green color. Plasma is somewhat rare, and the best specimens come from India and China. Among the ancient Romans it was highly prized, and was carved by them into ornaments of various kinds, and finely engraved specimens have been found among the ruins of ancient Rome. The variety used by the ancients is believed to have come from ^Mount Olympus in Asia Minor. PLASMO'DIUM (Neo-Lat., from Gk. TrXdo-MO, ■plasma, formation, molded figure -j- ciSos, eidos, form.) The vegetable body of a slime mold, consisting of a mass of naked protoplasm some- times covering several square inches, and crawl- ing about like a gigantic ama^ba. It is one of the most favorable subjects for studying the behavior of protoplasm. See Myxomy'CEtes. PLASMOL'YSIS (Xeo-Lat., from Gk. 7rX<£<r/«i, plasina, formation, molded figure + Xucris, lysis, resolution, from Meiti, lyein, to loose ). The shrinkage of the protoplasm, due to the extrac- tion of water from the cell sap by a solution of PLASMOLYSIS. A cell from a filament of alp;a iClndopbora) before (1) and after (2) plasmolysis with sug:ar solution. higher osmotic pressure in contact with the cell. The mature plant cell consists of a mass of proto- plasm, inclosing one or more droplets of cell sap (vacuoles) and surrounded by a membrane called the cell wall. Under certain conditions, which are also those of activity, the layer of proto])lasm is held so firmly against the cell wall