62 BABYLONIAN LITERATURE. 



I leave the examination of the scientific 

 theories of "The Book of Nabathsean Agri- 

 culture" to those who are familiar with the 

 history of the natural sciences. Such an 

 examination will not be possible till the 

 work of Kuthami is published in its en- 

 tirety. I shall only make one observation 

 on this head : the classification of plants 

 into cold and warm occurs incessantly in 

 "The Book of Nabathoean Agriculture." 1 

 It is known that this classification is later 

 than Theophrastus, who, in that general 

 theory, lays bare one basis of Greek Botany. 2 

 I shall only point out to astronomical 

 scholars two passages 3 where there are allu- 

 sions to the division of the zodiac into 

 twelve signs, and to the seven planets. The 

 philosophy of Kuthami, indeed, is not of a 

 character to bespeak great antiquity for the 

 work in which it is found. This philosophy 

 is a kind of monotheism, which induces the 

 author to repudiate the established creeds of 



1 Page 88. 2 Theophrasti Historia Plantar urn, I. ii. 



3 Pp. 51, 53, note. 



