The recently developed techniques of plant tissue culture have been used to develop somatic cell geneti cs programs in solanaceous species , particularly Petunia , Nicotiana, and Datura (Vasil et al., 1979). Development of tissue culture techniques has permitted the isolation of biochemical mutants, production of somatic hybrids, and recovery of haploid plants. Unfortunately, extrapolation of these techniques to leguminous and graminaceous species of greater economic importance has proven quite difficult.