Abstract: In order to develop techniques for sexual rep roduction of garlic under the controlled conditions, 160 garlic varieties and lines collected from the main production areas of China and abroad were used in the study. 41 garlic lines out of the 160 were selected for their better performance on early bolting, longer and stronger pedicels. The flower stalks with inflorescences of which were cut off at the basal of the plants and dipped the cutting end into the nutritional solution and then cultured under the temperature of (25 ±2) ℃,
photo period of 13 - 16 h /d and relative humidity of 75% to make the flower bud blooming normally as well as to prolong the blooming period. As the result, most of the lines cultured got blooming and the longest blooming period was 76 d. Later, the ovaries of 319 flowers out of the 426 flowers pollinated artificially by the pollen mixture were well developed and looked enlarged. Cell structure of the fertilized embryos were confirmed by the paraffin section and microscopy. 240 growing ovarieswere selected and cultured in vitro on the medium B5 + Sucrose 4% - 12% continuously under the conditions mentioned above. 53 ovaries amongwhich continued to grow and maintained green after 47 - 56 d culture. Anatomical studies showed that the young embryos grown
up in some ovules of the expanded and green ovaries and 76 mature embryos developed from 34 ovaries as well. Picked out the embryos developed at the different developmental stages and inoculated on the medium MS +BA 0.01 - 0.05 mg/L +NAA 0.05 - 0.10 mg/L + sucrose 40 - 80 g/L and cultured under the same conditions as before. 42 - 47 d later the young embryos developed into mature ones and the mature embryos grew up and formed the sexually reproduced plantlets.

Key words: Garlic, Ovary, Sexual embryo, In vitro culture