Abstract: In our experiment,15% and 25% polyethylene glycol(PEG 6000)were used to simulate the natural drought conditions.Under the artificial stress,the responses of 60 different varieties of jute(Corchorus L)in seed germination stage were studied.The results showed that the drought-resistance coefficients of the root length,shoot length and germination drought tolerance were reduced significantly as PEG concentration increased.By a cluster analysis,the jutes were,then,categorized into A,B,C,D and E groups each consisting of 18,8,7,3 and 24 varieties,respectively.The jutes in the C and D groups were highly drought tolerant,while those in the E group poorly.Those in the A and the B groups were markedly different in their resistances to drought.In all,16.7% of the varieties tested showed a strong,40% medium and 43.3% weak drought resistance.It appeared that the PEG stress test could be used to evaluate the drought tolerance potential of jute in seed germination stage.