Asexual multiplication is a unique process by which plants give rise to new individuals identical to the parent plant. This potential can be directly extended by microcutting, an in vitro vegetative propagation technique. Cell totipotency is also specific to the plant kingdom and expressed in in vitro cultures by the ability to regenerate embryos from somatic cells. Somatic embryogenesis was demonstrated in the 1950s in carrots (Steward et al., 1958); subsequently it has been obtained easily in certain plants but with much more difficulty in others (Ammirato, 1983a). The many advantages of this method, which combines enhanced regeneration (theoretically true to type) with rejuvenation, have incited numerous recent studies aimed at optimizing experimental conditions for somatic embryogenesis in monocots (Vasil, 1987), dicots (Raghavan, 1986; Rangaswamy, 1986; Ammirato, 1989).