Abstract
The response of four rice varieties : Blue-bonnet, IR 8, Jhona 349 and Magnola to salinization during germination and early, development stages was observed by using water-culture techniques. The three rice varie-ties : Bluebonnet, Jhona 349 and Magnolia were highly resistant to salinity during germina-tion. In general, all the four rice varieties were much more sensitive during the young-seedling and at the transplanting stages than during the germination stage. The variety Magnolia was the most tolerant during germination stage and the most sensi-tive during seedling stage in respect to dry matters. On the contrary, IR 8 was the least tolerant of the four varieties tested during germination and was relatively tolerant during seedling stagre in respect to dry matters. Magnolia showed relatively better performance than the other three varieties at transplanting. In general, each variety behaved quite differe-ntly to salinity during different development stages. Therefore, it is rather di fficult to compare one stage of plant development with anoter for the same variety.
