Abstract: In order to provide excellent germplasm resources for direct seeding and breeding for saline and alkaline stress tolerance,60 representative local japonica rice cultivars from Jilin province,China,were evaluated for their tolerance to saline and alkaline stresses at seed germination stage based on the membership degree. The saline and alkaline stresses were simulated by 120 mM NaCl (pH=6.98) and 30 mM Na₂CO₃ (pH=11.05) solutions respectively,and rice seeds were germinated on filter papers soaked with different stress solutions in a petri-dish (9 cm diameter). Five indices of seed germination including germination potential,germination rate,plumule length,root length and root number were measured under stressed or unstressed control conditions. The results revealed that the correlation of resistance to saline and alkaline reached highly significant level (r=0.728^**),though there are varietal differences. Relative plumule length,relative root length had good correlations with alkaline tolerance (r_BL=0.757^**,r_RL=0.812^**) and saline tolerance (r_BL=0.862^**,r_RL=0.781^**),representing a useful set of simple and fast monitoring parameters for assessing saline/alkaline tolerance levels for individual rice varieties. Based on the membership degree,the varieties were divided into 6 grades of saline or alkaline tolerance:highly tolerant (HT),moderately tolerant (MT),tolerant (T),susceptible (S),moderately susceptible (MS),highly susceptible (HS). We identified varieties Changbai 21 (HT/HT),Tonghe 835 (HT/HT),Ji Yujing (HT/HT),Changbai1 0(HT/MT),Jinian 6 (MT/HT),Jinian 10 (MT/MT),Jijing 507 (MT/MT),Jijing 509 (MT/MT),Jijing 806 (MT/MT) and Dongdao 4 (MT/MT) as tolerant to both the saline and alkaline; Tonghe 99 (HT/S)and Tonghe 837(MT/S) as tolerant to saline but susceptible to alkaline; Jijing 105 (MT/S) and Ji Nongda 828 (MT/S) as tolerant to alkaline but susceptible to saline; Jiudao 51 (HS/HS),Ji Nongda 888 (HS/HS)and Tonghe 834(HS/MS) as susceptible to both the saline and alkaline stresses. Furthermore,compared with the mid-late maturing or late maturing rice varieties,the early-medium maturing or medium maturing rice varieties in Jilin province showed better saline-alkaline tolerant performance. This finding may provide important reference for selecting parent sources in the saline-alkaline tolerant rice breeding programs.