Abstract: Pai-chih is one of the important Chinese drugs. As with most of the umbelliferous drugs, its botanical origin is in many respects confusing. By a preliminary study on the plant specimens collected from 10 principal localities where Pai-chih is either under cul- tivation or growing wild, the authors have idenhfied 7 species, representing 2 genera, namely Angelica and Heracleum of the parsley family. A brief account about the de- tails is given as follows: 1.Chuan pai-chih (Szechuan pai-chih) is derived from two species of plants, namely Angelica dahurica Benth. et Hook., and A. anomeld Lall. Tu pai-chih is Heracleum hemsleyanum Diels, is used in Szechuan only. 2.Hang pai-chih (Hangchow pai-chih) is essentially from Angelica formosana Boiss. This plant originally described from a Taiwan specimen, has been treated as identical with Angelicd dahurica by some authors, and here is retained as a good species on account of the following facts: its stem is comparatively slender, umbels with less than twenty rays, bractlets shorter than its pedicels, flowers yellowish green during anthesis; mericarps pilose at maturity, while in A. dahurica, the stem is rather stout and purpurlish, umbels with 22-40 rays with bractlets longer than or at least equal to its pedicels, and meri- carps glabrous at maturity. 3.Various samples that came from Honan known as Yu-pai-chih, from Hopei known as Chi-pai-chih, from Hunan as Hsiang-pai-chih, from Hupei as Eh-pai-chih, and from Anhuei as Po-pai-chih, are all identified as the same species, A. dahurica. 4.The name Heracleum lanatum Michx., a North American plant, has appeared both in the current Asiatic medicinal literatures and on the herbarium sheets for the ternate leaved Chinese Heracleum. By a careful comparison between the American species and our species, the authors have found that the former is by no means the same as ours. The presence of this American plant in this country seems highly improbable. The Hopei Heracleum Pai-chih which resembles somewhat Heracleum lanatum in the foliage appearance, is here identified as Heracleum moellendorffii Hance.