Seventy one seed-lines representing 23 species of papilionoid legumes and 17 species of nonlegumes were collected and distributed to four countries; Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the U.S.A. In each of these countries plants were grown from the seeds and their suscept~ility to a total of eight persistent aphid isolates transmitted viruses was assessed. The viruses were a strain of beet western yellows (BWYV) from Glycine maxin Illinois, legume yellows (LYV) in California and a virus in Michigan (MiAV) from Medicago sativa, from Pisum sativum causing leaf roll and top yellows in New Zealand (PeLRV-NZ) and the Netherlands (BLRV), isolates of subterranean clover red leaf from New Zealand (SCRLV-NZ) and Tasmania (SCRLV-T); and Subterranean clover stunt (SCSV) from Tasmania.The relationships between the eight viruses as indicated by their host reactions were assessed using computer classification techniques. SCRLV-NZ and SCRLV-T were the most similar. They had moderately wide host ranges that included some non-legumes. A second group comprized BWYV and PeLRV-NZ. These were typical of most beet western yellows virus strains in that they infected Brassica napus, Capsella bursa-pastoris and Stellaria media. MiAV and BLRV also formed a pair. They generally induced severe symptoms on the hosts which they infected and had host ranges confined to legumes except that BLRV also infected Claytonia perfoliata and Erodium spp. The relationships of LYV and SCSV were not consistent. They paired together in some classifications, but SCSV sometimes grouped with the SCRLV isolates. Both had host ranges confined to legumes, caused severe symptoms in most hosts and were often difficult to recover from affected plants. LYV had some affinities with BLRV and MiAV.The tests indicated a set of test plants which were most useful for propagating and identifying persistent aphid-transmitted viruses from legumes. Two, P. sativum cv. Onyx and Trifolium subterraneum cv. Bacchus Marsh were susceptible to all isolates. Ten others distinguished between t]he isolates and were Arachis hypogea, Beta vulgaris, C. bursa-pastoris, G. max cv.