Welfia
(named in honour of the Royal Family [Guelph] of Hanover). ORD. Palmae. A small genus (two species) of stove, unarmed Palms, natives of Central America. Flowers pale yellowish-white, rather large; spathes two, deciduous; spadices thick, pendulous. Fruit dark violet, oblong, compressed, 2in. long. Leaves terminal, pinnatisect, on rather flat, short petioles; segments much narrowed at base, entire or cut at apex. W. regia, the only species introduced, should be grown in a compost of rich loam and leaf mould, mixed with a little old cow-dung. Propagation may be effected by seeds. W. regia (royal).* l. in the young state divided almost to the base into a pair of oblong, acuminate lobes, having a pretty bronzy tint, borne on slender petioles, at length becoming pinnatisect; margins of the segments recurved at base; adult leaves with numerous unequal, narrow pinnae, decurrent on the angular rachis, whitish beneath. When fully grown, the stem attains a height of 60ft., and the leaves a length of about 20ft. New Grenada, 1869. (G. C. 1870, 764; F. M. n. s. 60; I. H. n. s. 62.)