ABSTRACT
Silene is a genus in the Caryophyllaceae, subfamily Dianthoideae. Confusion has also been sown by the current horticultural use of Visearia to name some species of Silene and the tendency to give varieties specific epithets. Silene is, in general, a genus of long days plants, most having a qualitative requirement. The vegetative plant has a strictly opposite and decussate leaf arrangement with unequal buds at each node, and normally only the larger of the two develops, at least in the upper part of the plant. Variation in the numbers of floral parts normally occurs only in a very small proportion of plants, except at high or low temperatures when the proportion of plants having uncharacteristic numbers of floral organs, i.e., showing meristic variation, increases. Light intensity is also important, plants being induced less effectively when the light intensity was low during the high-intensity part of the photoperiod.
