Abstract: The seeds of Chinese traditionul medicine are very small, their maturity is in great disparity. the germination rate is usually low under natural conditions, and the initial growth of the seedlings is very slow. which makes it dffcult to estimate the seed amount and to ensure sufficient and robust plants needed for cultivation in large scales. In this study. the bromothymol blue（BTB） method was used to rnpid determine the seed vigor of the W-SCHY-W-1 population of, and the relationships between seed vigor and the germination rates from the in situ-like and conventional germination tests were established. Results showed that the regression equation of in situ-like grmination rate（y） with seed vigor determined by BTB（x） is y=0.983 5 x+1.859 5. R~2=0.996, and the regression equation of conventional germination rate（y） and seed vigor（x） is y= 0,347 1 x+51.95, R~2=0.972. In conclusion, BTB method is applicable for rapid determination of the seed vigor and prediction of the gertmination rates of seeds.