About 1245 varieties of cultivated rice collected from the growing countries in the world, degree of lodging was observed at the Experimental Farm of the Kyushu University in Fukuoka, Japan, during the autumn 1950 when the weather conditions proceeded favourable for rice crop. Four classes of lodging degree that is, none, small, medium, and heavy, were detected and all varieties were grouped according to their origin as compiled in table 1, while most varieties came from such high latitude regions as Japan, Manchuria and Italy showed no lodging, on the contrary many of those collected from low latitude regions as Africa, Taiwan, India and, South and Central China lodged heavily or medium. Varieties originated from other countries, namely Chosen, North China, and South America and U. S. S. R. showed wide variations for lodging character. Reasons for such varietal differences were discussed on the one hand from morphological plant characters, that is,tall column, large panicle versus short column, small panicle and high tillering capacity which were accelerated especially in Japan by recent organized breeding system and in the other, unfavourable ecological conditions for foreign crops in Fukuoka.