“defendant.” In suits for divorce the party bringing the suit is styled the “petitioner,” the party against whom it is brought the “respondent.”
PLAIT (through O. Fr. pleit, from Lat. plicitum, folded, plicare, to fold), properly a fold, especially a fold of cloth, now usually in the collateral form “pleat.” “Plait” is now principally applied to entwined strands of ribbon, hair, straw or fibre.
PLAN (from Lat. planus, flat), a diagram on a flat surface; hence by analogy any deliberate scheme or design. In architecture, a “plan” is a horizontal geometrical section of the walls of a building, or indications, on a horizontal plane, of the relative positions of the walls and partitions, with the various openings, such as windows and doors, recesses and projections, chimneys and chimney-breasts, columns, pilasters, &c. This term is sometimes incorrectly used in the sense of design (q.v.).
PLANARIANS, a well-defined group of animals, characterized externally by their ovoid or vermiform shape, their gliding movement and their soft, unsegmented, ciliated bodies: internally by that combination of low somatic type of structure and complex gonidial organization which is characteristic of the Platyelmia (q.v.). Their low type of bodily structure may be exemplified by the facts that the mouth is the only means of ingress to and egress from the blind alimentary sac, and that no vascular system is differentiated. Most Planarians are aquatic and the cilia that cover the body produce by their beating a stirring of the water. Hence the class is generally known by the name Turbellaria.
Planarians form one of the basal groups of the animal kingdom. They are the simplest of multicellular creeping things. In them the gliding movement has become habitual. The lowest Planarians are still largely free-swimming animalculæ and we can trace within the limits of the group the development of the creeping habit and the consequences that flow from it. It has led to the differentiation of anterior and posterior extremities, to the formation of bilateral symmetry; and to the development of a mucilage protecting the body against friction. It entails the concentration of the scattered nervous system on the ventral surface and at the anterior end, and it has induced the segregation of the diffused sense-organs in the head. The Planarians occupy a position midway between the simple planula larva of Coelenterates and the segmented Annelids. They have probably sprung either from an early Coelomate stock, or represent an independent class descended from a two layered parentage distinct from that of the Coelenterates; a view which is adopted in the present article.
Occurrence.—Most Turbellaria are aquatic. They abound on the seashore and in fresh water, amongst weeds or under cover of stones, shells and sand. Few of them are pelagic or deep-water forms, and only some half-dozen Planarians are known to be parasitic. A large number of land Planarians are known, chiefly from tropical and south temperate countries.
The majority of marine Planarians are nocturnal or cryptozoic, hiding away during the period of low tide to avoid desiccation of their soft sticky bodies and coming out at night or during high tide to feed. They are mostly carnivorous, and their movements are correlated largely with the nature of their food. The smaller, more active species occur in companies amongst the finer seaweeds over which they creep or swim in pursuit of their food. The larger marine species occur singly or in pairs on Ascidians, Nullipores or Polyzoa, from whence as the tide rises they issue to feed. By the time the next low tide exposes them, these Planarians have so completely digested their meal that we know very little of its nature. The common fresh-water Planarians form either little companies of a dozen or more, usually of a single species, huddled together under a stone or in some cranny (see Pearl [8][1]), or societies of several species that inhabit Sphagnum and other fresh-water vegetation. This fresh-water planarian fauna is of two kinds, the fauna of permanent and that of temporary sheets of water and both show a certain adaptation to their environment. The latter, being subject to greater extremes of temperature than the lacustrine Planarians, produce thick-shelled eggs only. The development of these eggs is rapid in warm water, slow in cold: so that a pool after a few days of early spring sunshine is soon populated and provision is made for the continuance of the race should a cold snap follow. The lacustrine Planarians exhibit a different form of adaptation. The eggs laid by many of these animals are either thin-shelled and rapidly hatched or thick-shelled and slowly hatched. The lake-water, however, is in spring, even after sunshine, of a much lower temperature than that of pool-water, but the masses of Sphagnum and other weeds that border lakes and marshes are often warmer than the open water and may be as much as 13° or 15° C. higher in temperature. Here the Planarians assemble to benefit by the warmth, and under such favourable conditions lay thin-shelled eggs which rapidly develop; whilst in colder surroundings or at the onset of winter thick-shelled resting eggs are laid. In this manner we can understand the abundance of Planarian life in cold meres and transitory pools in Great Britain, Scandinavia, Finland, Denmark and North America.
In contrast to the general habit among Turbellaria of haunting dim or dark places, the station chosen by a few species is exposed and strongly illuminated. The marine Convoluta and Polychaerus and the fresh-water Vortex viridis may be taken as examples. Convoluta paradosa occurs among brown weeds which receive much light during neap tides and strong direct sun or light every fortnight. Polychaerus creeps about the New England shore without resorting habitually to cover, and is also strongly insulated. Vortex resembles the green Hydra of our ponds in choosing the lightest side of its surroundings; and finally, Convoluta roscoffensis paints the beach green in Brittany, part of Normandy and Natal. In every such case the Planarian is coloured brown or green by the presence of photosynthetically active cells and the singular heliotropic habit of these Turbellaria is associated with the illumination necessary for the activity of their coloured cells.
Only one branch of the Planarians has become terrestrial, but this has spread over almost all the whole globe. One species (Rhynchodemus terrestris, fig. 1, e) is fairly common in Great Britain under stones, logs and occasionally on fungi, but the Holarctic countries (North America, Europe and North Africa, North Asia) are extremely poor in terrestrial species. In countries lying in the centre and in the south of the great continents and in the south temperate continental islands and archipelagoes these land Planarians become more abundant and varied; and being frequently transported with earth or plants they are often found in hothouses and botanical gardens far from their native country. Their distribution offers some points of special interest showing a close relationship between the South American fauna and that of Australia and New Zealand: between the land Planarians of Madagascar, of Ceylon and of Indo-Malaya: and a marked contrast between Japan and the rest of the Palaearctic region (see Von Graff [1], 1899).
External Characters.—-Planarians range from the minute forms no larger than Infusoria to ovate, marine species, 6 in. in diameter and to ribbon-like land forms 8 in. in length. The majority are small, somewhat cylindrical organisms with a flat creeping surface. Others, comprising the common freshwater and marine forms, are flattened and leaf-like, often provided with a pair of tentacles near the front end of the body, and in some cases the whole dorsal surface is beset with papillae. The land forms are elongate and smooth, and their anterior extremity is often modified into the arcuate shape of a cheese-cutter. Their movements are usually of a gliding character. The minuter forms perform short excursions into the water round their station, and in so doing recall Infusoria. The larger forms, in addition to gliding like pellicles, fold the expanded anterior part of their body into a couple of fins, with which they swim after the fashion of a skate. The folded margins of other forms clasp the weeds on which they live. Adhesion is effected by the mucous investment of the body and frequently by some specially developed local secretion of slime, or by a sucker. By these means, aided by their
- ↑ These references are to the literature at the end of this article.
