PLXTMBING. 131 PLUM INSECTS. kitchens. Tent pipes were formerlj- run from the back of each trap to a connection with the outer air, to give a back air pressure on the trap and lessen the danger from siphonage. Obviously, such a pipe from everj- trap greatly complicates a plumbing system, and trap vents are now omitted on much of the best work in the United States. Regarding the omission of both main traps and trap vents it should be said that there is little need for them on well designed and built house and street sewerage systems, because the wastes are speedily removed and in well-venti- lated sewers the air is comparatively good. General Co^jsidebatioxs. Simplicity, acces- sibility, a high grade of material throughout, heavy weights for pipes, and good workmanship are the essentials of plumbing. To secure these, plumbing should be designed only by the most competent sanitary engineers, and should be un- der the rigid supervision of efficient municipal inspectors. All plans for plumbing should be tiled with the plumbing inspector or health de- partment. The hydraulic pressure test should be applied when the rough plumbing has been completed, and the smoke or peppermint test when the fixtures are set. BiBLiocR.PHT. Gerhard, Sanitary Engineering of Buildings (Xew York, 1899), and House Drainage and l^anitary Plumbing (Xew York, 1882) : Chapin's Municipal Sanitation in the United States (Providence, 1901) is valuable on account of itf extracts and summaries based on plumbing ordinances. See Ga.s ; Heating axd Vextilatiox : Sewerage ; Water-Works. PLUM CURCULIO. A weevil (Conotrache- lus muuphar) especially injurious to the plum. See Plum Insects. PLUME, Captain. The leading character in Farquhar's comedy The Recruiting O/ficer; a dashing soldier who marries Sylvia, an heiress, and leaves the service. PLUMED KNIGHT. A nickname of James G. Blaine, first given by Colonel Robert G. In- gersoll in 1876, in nominating Blaine for the chairmanship of the Republican convention. The phrase became a favorite nickname, and Blaine was thereafter regularly depicted in cartoons under this character. PLUME MOTH. A moth of the family l'liro|ilnaid;f. a group of wide distribution and probably numerous in species, but the insects are very small and very delicate and are seldom collected. The wings are usually divided after the fashion of a hand into fingers, so as to form feathers. The hind wings are more completely divided than the front, which sometimes are not parted more than once or twice. There is much variety in the habits of the larvs and pup;?; some are covered with hair and live exposed "upon leaves, and some have hairy pupa;, while in some cases there is a slight cocoon. Some larvae are curiously armed and protectively colored. About 6.5 species are known in the L'nited States. One of the commonest forms (Oxyptilus perisceli- ddctiihis) is yellowish-brown in color. The larvoe hatch in the spring and feed upon the leaves of the grape, of which they fasten several together. The caterpillars live either singly or in com- panies of two or three in such habitations, chang- ing to pupne early in .June. The species of the family Orneodidie are also included in the term 'plume moth,' since the wings are divided as in the Pterophorid^e, but much more greatly divided, each wing being split into six plumes. Only one species (Orneodes hexadactyla) occurs in the United States, and it is also found in Europe and Canada. PLUM'EB, William Swan (1802-80). An American clergyman. He was born at Griers- burg (now Darlington), Beaver County, Pa., graduated from Washington College, Virginia, in 1822, and studied divinity at Princeton Theo- logical Seminary. In 1826 he was licensed to preach, receiving his ordination as evangelist the following year, and from the beginning of his licentiate till 1829 he labored as evangelist in Virginia and in Xorth Carolina. He then be- came pastor of the Tabb Street Church, Peters- burg, Virginia, and held successive pastorates at Richmond, Baltimore, and Allegheny. From I860 to 1867 he was pastor of the Second Church, Pottsville, Pa. For eight years succeed- ing 1837 he owned and edited The Watchman of the South (Richmond, Va.). From 1854 to 1802 he held a professorship in the Western Theolog- ical .Seminary, Allegheny, Pa., and from 1867 to 1880 in the Theological Seminarj' at Columbia, S. C. He published over twenty-five volumes, in- cluding commentaries on the Psalms, Romans, and Hebrews, and sermons, tracts, and pamphlets in large number. PLUMIER, plu'mya', Charles (1646-1704). A distinguished French botanist, born at Mar- seilles. He studied botany under the celebrated Joseph de Tournefort (q.v.), and in 1089 visited the West Indies. On his return he published Description des plantes de l'Ain6rique, with nu- merous plates (1693). At the King's request, he twice again visited Xorth America in 1693 and 1695. In 1703 appeared his Voivi Plantarum Americanarum Genera. When about to sail the fourth time for America, in order to investigate the subject of Peruvian bark (cinchona), he died at Cadiz. A work that is still often con- sulted is his treatise on the ferns of America, which appeared in the year after his death. It contains 172 engraved plates. He wrote exten- sively in miscellaneous publications on the plants, birds, and fishes of America. A genus of South American plants, Plumeria, several of which are cultivated for their fragrance, was named by Tournefort in his honor. See Haller's Bihliotheca Botanica. PLUM INSECTS. The most notable of the insects which damage the plum in the United States is the plum curculio (Conotrachelus nenu- phar), a species which for many years has de- stroyed almost the entire crop over large sec- tions of the country. It is a small, rough, gray- ish or blackish beetle, about one-fifth of an inch- long, with a black, shining hump on the middle of each wing case. The female lays her eggs in the young fruit shortly after they are formed, making with her long snout a small cut through the skin, running in the snout to a depth of about one-sixteenth of an inch. In this cavity the egg is placed. She then cuts a crescent-shaped slit through the skin in front of the hole so as to imdermine the egg and leave it in a flap, the ob- ject being apparently to cause the piece around the egg to wilt and thus to prevent the grow- ing fruit from crushing the egg. The larva is a white, footless grub which feeds upon the flesh of the fruit, for the most part about the
