ABSTRACT
In classification of the sciences, it was a long time before botany and agriculture were considered as two distinct disciplines. The first work on agriculture, Nabatean Agriculture, is also a work on botany. Agriculture and botany are sometimes classed amongst the medical sciences, in view of the importance of plants in the treatments of illnesses. Nourishment and therapeutics were at the origin of botany and agriculture. The care of the agriculturist is to feed men, that of the botanist is to heal them – whence the double meaning of the title filāḥa on the most ancient treatises. It means both care for the earth and the care of plants.1
