Technical Abstract: The wild chickpea species in the USDA ARS National Plant Germplasm System collection include 113 accessions of seven annual wild Cicer species and 59 accessions representing 13 perennial Cicer species (available online at www.ars-grin.gov/npgs). The previous germination method of the perennial Cicer species was to aerate seed in fresh water and the seed would then germinate over weeks (Kaiser et al 1997). N. Kameswara Rao has used in vitro germination on water agar to successfully uniformly germinate annual wild Cicer species (personal communication, 2000). An in vitro germination method was studied as an alternative method to provide uniform germination of the perennial species with the goal of establishing a nursery for regeneration and evaluation of inter- and intra- accession genetic variability. Twenty-eight accessions of nine perennial species were surface disinfested, scarified, and cultured under sterile conditions on water agar. The average germination of 26 accessions of eight species was 82%. One species, C. monbretii (two accessions), failed to germinate in vitro. An additional 13 accessions were successfully germinated with the same method (data not shown) and three other accessions of C. monbretii also failed to germinate on water agar.