PLATE 67.—LIGUSTICUM PILIFERUM. 
Famity UMBELLIFER 4. | [Genus LIGUSTICUM, Linn 
Ligusticum piliferum, Hook. /. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 96; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 220. 
Lagusticum piliferum was first discovered by Sir Julius von Haast in 1861 
on Mount Torlesse, well known to the residents of Christchurch as the nearest 
prominent outlier of the Southern Alps. As it attains a height of nearly 
6,500 {t., and stretches from the Waimakariri River to Porter’s Pass, it is high 
enough and massive enough to present many diversified plant-stations of rock, 
shingle-slope, and subalpine meadow; and hence no small number of alpine 
plants first became known from specimens obtained from such a convenient and 
accessible collecting-ground. In the case of L. piliferum, it was soon found in 
other localities. Haast obtained it in several additional stations in the Southern 
Alps; Hector and Buchanan gathered it in the Lake district of Otago; Travers 
in the Hurunui Valley and other localities in northern Canterbury. Since then 
it has been found by Mr. Macmahon on Mount Stokes, near Pelorus Sound, and 
by myself on the Mount Arthur Range, in north-west Nelson, these two stations 
constituting its northern limit. Roughly speaking, it can be said to be an 
abundant mountain - plane from thence to the south-west of Otago, chiefly 
between the elevations of 2,500 ft. and 5,000 ft. 
L. piliferum is a very distinet species, and I do not know any plant that can 
be said to be closely allied. Its stout fleshy stems, bold foliage, and large umbels 
of white flowers make it a very conspicuous and showy plant, and it is a great 
ornament to the rocky banks and ledges on which it delights to grow. 
Pirate 67. Ligusticum piliferum, drawn from specimens collected on Mount Arthur, Nelson, 
at an elevation of 4,500 ft. Fig. 1, flower (x 7); 2 and 3, the same with the petals and stamens 
removed (x7); 4, petal (x7); 5 and 6, front and back view of anthers (x7); 7, fruit (x 12); 
8, transverse section of fruit (x 12). 
