The cultivated soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill) is an herbaceous annual, unknown in the wild, with uncertain ancestry. Most believe that its origin was in Eastern Asia, probably Northeastern China, where it was first cultivated about the 11th century B.C. (Probst and Judd, 1973). Like corn, the soybean may have been selected and bred by ancient man from a more primi-tive form that was different in growth habit and floral development.