Abstract: Zea mays seedlings of inbred line(Wuming-5) and hybrid(Kenyu7) were treated with different concentrations of NaCl solution.The effects of vigor of germination,the length of buds and roots,the contents of proline,and the activities of superoxide dismutase(SOD) and hydrogen peroxidase(CAT) were investigated.With the increasing of NaCl stress:(1)the growth of the two Zea mays varieties was inhibited ,the vigor of germination and the length of buds and roots were both reduced. While there are significant differences in morphology between the two different Zea mays varieties under NaCl stress,the morphological indicators of kenyu7 were superior to wuming-5.It showed that the halophile of Kenyu7 were better than Wuming-5;(2)the contents of proline of the two Zea mays varieties increased significantly,and under high NaCl stress(150mmol/L NaCl or above) the increasing amount of the contents of proline of Kenyu7 was higher than Wuming-5 ,so it showed that the injuries of Wuming-5 imposed by NaCl stress was greater than Kenyu7;(3)the activities of CAT of the two varieties were no obviously changed,while the activities of CAT of Wuming-5 were all higher than Kenyu7 under all concentrations of NaCl solution,which hadn’t showed the correlation between the activity of CAT and salinity tolerance.While the activities of SOD of Kenyu7 were changed more significantly than Wuming-5,which suggested that the salt tolerance of Kenyu7 was better than Wuming-5.