ABSTRACT
The whole process of flower formation in Silene armeria can be understood by surmising that in vegetative plants the “inhibition” is a blocking of a specific DNA which regulates the synthesis of the floral hormone. Special interest goes to Xanthium strumarium and Bryophyllum daigremontianum, because these species are the only ones which are known to have self-perpetuating floral hormones like Silene armeria. The biochemical nature of the floral hormone in S. armeria has remained just as obscure as in other species, but a satisfactory hypothesis about its synthesis could be developed, that a specific DNA is responsible for this synthesis. Evidently the first product of deblocked DNA is a specific RNA and it cannot be excluded that already this RNA functions as floral hormone. It has been demonstrated in the preceding subsection that the floral hormone in S. armeria is an autocatalytic substance and as such it is similar to certain viruses.
