Also don't rule out Chamaedorea erumpens, also known as a bamboo palm. I just bought one yesterday from the local Wal*Mart, haven't measured but it's about 16-18 inches tall and looks very similar to a pot of parlour palms Chamaedorea elegans I bought 2 months ago (they are only about 6-8 inches tall). This newer bigger similar looking palm I bought has a different feature on it than the parlour palm, in that the terminal pair of leaflets are considerably larger than the rest of them on the frond, and this isn't the case on my parlour palm. A trip to the library to sign out the trusty Reader's Digest 'Success with Houseplants' book, and that is the description they have there (about the terminal leaflets being larger for the bamboo palm). So check your friend's plant for that - I could not tell from your photo. kioni

The silver bay was a close guess. I really had to look at it, but after I got gardengal48's suggestion of dieffenbachia dumb cane, I think that is it. Thanks so much. Now I probably should get them out of my house b/c of my cats!

THANK YOU! I was hoping it wasn't incorrect, and I started thinking maybe it was 'Mme Zoetmans', which would be a happy mystery-solved. But I'd rather it be 'Charles de Mills'. And yes, these tiny buds are only just barely uncovered, and what little shows beneath the green is white. So maybe they'll color up in the next few days. I greatly appreciate your guidance here and with my earlier questions, mad_gallica! After my post about how far own-root Gallicas spread, I took a measuring tape to the two beds where I want to plant them. I'll be fine doing 4'-5' between them, as you suggested, especially with one less ('Belle de Crecy' didn't get shipped) and if I put the two or three "less rampant spreaders" ('Nouveau Monde', 'Duchesse d'Angouleme' and/or 'Duchesse de Montebello') elsewhere. :-) ~Christopher

I believes there is just one plant, Epiphyllum oxypetalum has shows two types stems, primary stem terete/cylinder, could be 2 meters long, can be some what woody, then at the distal part it will be winged/flattened, and the secondary stem is flattened from the base, flower only appear from flattened part both primary or secondary.