Several in vitro properties of partially purified form II RNA polymerase from Drosophila melanogaster embryo nuclei are described. The enzyme preparation is free from contaminating RNase, protein kinase, and polyphosphate kinase activities and can be used to study the incorporation of gamma-32P-labeled nucleoside triphosphates. The enzyme exhibits a biphasic heat inactivation pattern which is probably related to differential lability of its two subforms. However, a considerable protection against heat inactivation is provided by the nucleoside triphosphates present in the in vitro reaction system such that the enzyme catalyzes RNA synthesis in a nearly linear mode for over 2 hr at 30 C. Two initiation inhibitors, rifamycin AF/013 was found unsuitable for critical studies because of the high concentrations necessary for total inhibition (200 micrograms/ml) and particularly because of the obligate use of solvents which secondarily have a destabilizing effect on native DNA. Poly[I] was found to effectively block initiation at very low concentrations (1 microgram/ml). The enzyme rapidly forms poly[I]-resistant preinitiation complexes on both double- and single-stranded DNA. These complexes decay with a half-life of 2.5--3 min. RNA synthesis from poly[I]-resistant complexes amounts to 10% of the total potential synthesis on both double- and single-stranded DNA. Enzyme-DNA saturation experiments indicate that the form II enzyme discriminates two types of sites on Drosophila DNA, tight binding and weak binding, from which RNA synthesis proceeds slowly and rapidly, respectively. The tight-binding sites appear to be analogous to those sites with which the enzyme is able to form poly[I]-resistant complexes.