Abstract

The aim of the present study is to develop phenotypically stable varieties for those soils that are contaminated with mercury or cobalt. This is a novel report about their ability to grow in the contaminated soil. The benefit of this technology is the potential for low cost remediation. Highly significant differences have been observed among the varieties of  Linum usitatissimum for all the characters in all the treatment or environment. There has been considerable amount of variability for all the characters in all the treatments. The 10-5 M HgCl2 treatment shows the inhibitory effect in all the varieties and there is no further seedling establishment after seed germination. The highest toxic effect has been observed for the seedling vigour and seed vigour index. The 10-5 M HgCl2 concentration is the last limit of tolerance in plants while 10-4 M CoCl2 could be the last tolerance limit and there may be a specific gene in plants which monitor the toxicity level or tolerance capacity. The maximum magnitude of positive correlation coefficient has been found between seedling fresh and dry weight and negative for 1000 seed weight and germination rate index. The seedling length exerts maximum positive direct effect on seedling vigour followed by absolute seedling water content.