External Characters and Alkaloids of the Artificial Interspecific F1 Hybrid between Papaver orientale L. (_??_) and P. somniferum L. (_??_)

1. The artificial interspecific F1 hybrid between Papaver orientale L. (_??_) and P. somniferum L. (_??_) was produced in May, 1956. Its seeds were sown in October in the same year and 7 hybrids germinated the next month. Only one hybrid flowered in July, 1957.2. The somatic chromosome number in the hybrid was 32, the sum of the haploid numbers, 11 and 21, in the male and female parents, respectively.3. The hybrid was perennial like the female parent.4. The adult leaves of the hybrid were hispid on both sides and the petioles were canaliculate, like the female parent. It is very interesting, however, that the mode and extent of resemblance to the parents in the characters of leaves varied with stages of growth. During some months after germination, the hybrid was very similar to the female parent, but from early April, it began to resemble the male parent rather than the female parent. Finally, by late May, the hybrid was an intermediate between the two parents.5. The stems, peduncles, flower-buds, and floral leaves were all like those of the female parent. The made of ramification of the flowering shoot resembled that of the male parent.6. The presence of morphine, codeine, thebaine, and isothebaine in the hybrid was demonstrated by chemical separations and paper chromatography.7. Morphine and codeine in the hybrid are considered to have been inherited from the male parent and isothebaine from the female parent.8. Oripavine, an alkaloid characteristic of the female parent, was not proved in the hybrid.