ALKALOIDS, LATEX AND OXIDASES IN PAPAVER SOMNIFERUM 3 
and remained much more intensely colored than the surrounding 
parts. When the latex was gathered by allowing the exuding drops 
to fall into a little distilled water an intense oxidase reaction was 
likewise seen. A study of the reaction on cut surfaces of leaves, 
stems and roots showed that the reaction was most intense where the 
latex was most abundant and that, indeed, as far as could be judged 
by this crude method, the latex content and oxidase reaction ran 
roughly parallel. The petals seemed to form a possible exception in 
giving an intense oxidase reaction while yielding little latex on wound- 
ing. However, the mass of tissue here is small and the very numerous 
small branches of the latex system may offer obstacles to the quick 
and abundant outflow of the latex such as would be strikingly seen 
on the cut surfaces of the more massive structures. 
Further interesting light on the relation of the latex to the oxidase 
reaction came from a study of young poppy plants. Plants from 30 
to 45 centimeters tall on which no flower buds had as yet appeared 
gave no clear oxidase reaction on cut surfaces, and the plant juices 
were watery rather than milky. As the plants developed the sus- 
pended matter giving to the latex its characteristic milky appearance 
increased and the oxidase reaction also appeared as already described. 
Whether this coincidence between the degree of milkiness of the latex 
and the intensity of the oxidase reaction has any special physiological 
significance can not now be stated. However, a number of wild 
plants having a milky juice were tested in the same way and a strong 
oxidase reaction appeared whenever the juice was treated with the 
guaiac tincture. The addition of H2O2 in these cases gave a very 
strong reaction for peroxidase. The following plants were tested: 
Euphorbia maculata, Sonchus asper and Hieracium aurantiacum. 
The study of these reactions on fresh plants was supplemented by 
a laboratory examination of extracts prepared from different parts 
of the poppy plant. Normal poppy plants approaching maturity 
were carefully dug up, promptly and thoroughly cleaned and quickly 
cut into the following portions: Roots, lower stems, leaves, upper 
stems, capsules (immature), and flower buds. Each portion was 
quickly reduced to a fine pulp by use of a meat grinder, placed in a 
clean beaker similar in size and shape to the others used in the series 
and macerated over night in a volume of water proportional to the 
weight of the fresh pulp and sufficient to cover it. On the following 
morning the various macerations were found to have undergone a 
