King James Bible Dictionary

PLANT, noun [Latin planta; splendeo, splendor.]

1. A vegetable; an organic body, destitute of sense and spontaneous motion, adhering to another body in such a manner as to draw from it its nourishment, and having the power of propagating itself by seeds; 'whose seed is in itself.' Genesis 1:1. This definition may not be perfectly correct, as it respects all plants, for some marine plants grow without being attached to any fixed body.

The woody or dicotyledonous plants consist of three parts; the bark or exterior coat, which covers the wood; the wood which is hard and constitutes the principal part; and the pith or center of the stem. In monocotyledonous plants, the ligneous or fibrous parts, and the pithy or parenchymatous, are equally distributed through the whole internal substance; and in the lower plants, funguses, sea weed, etc. the substance is altogether parenchymatous. By means of proper vessels, the nourishing juices are distributed to every part of the plant In its most general sense, plant comprehends all vegetables, trees, shrubs, herbs, grasses, etc. In popular language, the word is generally applied to the smaller species of vegetables.

2. A sapling.

3. In Scripture, a child; a descendant; the inhabitant of a country. Psalms 144:12. Jeremiah 48:32.

4. The sole of the foot. [Little used.]

Sea-plant, a plant that grows in the sea or in salt water; sea weed.

Sensitive plant a plant that shrinks on being touched, the mimosa.

PLANT, verb transitive To put in the ground and cover, as seed for growth; as, to plant maiz.

1. To set in the ground for growth, as a young tree or a vegetable with roots.

2. To engender; to set the germ of any thing that may increase.

It engenders choler, planteth anger.

3. To set; to fix.

His standard planted on Laurentum's towers.

4. To settle; to fix the first inhabitants; to establish; as, to plant a colony.

5. To furnish with plants; to lay out and prepare with plants; as, to plant a garden or an orchard.

6. To set and direct or point; as, to plant cannon against a fort.

7. To introduce and establish; as, to plant christianity among the heathen.

I have planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:7.

8. To unite to Christ and fix in a state of fellowship with him. Psalms 92:13.

PLANT, verb intransitive To perform the act of planting.

PLANT'ABLE, adjective Capable of being planted.

PLANT'AGE, noun [Latin plantago.] An herb, or herbs in general. [Not in use.]

PLANT'AIN, noun [Latin plantago.] A plant of the genus Plantago, of several species. The water plantain is of the genus Alisma.

PLANT'AIN

PLANT'AIN-TREE, noun A tree of the genus Musa, the most remarkable species of which are, the paradisiaca or plantain, and the sapietum or banana tree. The plantain rises with a soft stem fifteen or twenty feet high, and the fruit is a substitute for bread.

PLANT'AL, adjective Belonging to plants. [Not used.]

PLANTA'TION, noun [Latin plantatio, from planto, to plant.]

1. The act of planting or setting in the earth for growth.

2. The place planted; applied to ground planted with trees, as an orchard or the like.

3. In the United States and the West Indies, a cultivated estate; a farm. In the United States, this word is applied to an estate, a tract of land occupied and cultivated, in those states only where the labor is performed by slaves, and where the land is more or less appropriated to the culture of tobacco, rice, indigo and cotton, that is, from Maryland to Georgia inclusive, on the Atlantic, and in the western states where the land is appropriated to the same articles or to the culture of the sugar cane. From Maryland, northward and eastward, estates in land are called farms.

4. An original settlement in a new country; a town or village planted.

While these plantations were forming in Connecticut--

5. A colony.

6. A first planting; introduction; establishment; as the plantation of christianity in England.

PLANT'-CANE, noun In the West Indies, the original plants of the sugar cane, produced from germs placed in the ground; or canes of the first growth, in distinction from the ratoons, or sprouts from the roots of canes which have been cut.

PLANT'ED, participle passive Set in the earth for propagation; set; fixed; introduced; established.

1. Furnished with seeds or plants for growth; as a planted field.

2. Furnished with the first inhabitants; settled; as territory planted with colonists.

3. Filled or furnished with what is new.

A man in all the world's new fashion planted [See Def.3.]

PLANT'ER, noun One that plants, sets, introduces or establishes; as a planter of maiz; a planter of vines; the planters of a colony.

1. One that settles in a new or uncultivated territory; as the first planters in Virginia.

2. One who owns a plantation; used in the West Indies and southern states of America.

3. One that introduces and establishes.

The apostles were the first planters of christianity.

PLANT'ERSHIP, noun The business of a planter, or the management of a plantation, as in the West Indies.

PLANT'ICLE, noun A young plant or plant in embryo.

PLANT'ING, participle present tense Setting in the earth for propagation; setting; settling; introducing; establishing.

PLANT'ING, noun The act or operation of setting in the ground for propagation, as seeds, trees, shrubs, etc.

PLANT'-LOUSE, noun An insect that infests plants; a vine fretter; the puceron.

See Botany
Botany