Seedlings of rice var. IR-36 when exposed to mercury contaminated waste soil from a chlor-alkali factory containing 0.95 g of mercury, 30 days after transplanting, mercury accumulation increased from 3.70 ± 0.22 mg in 2.5 per cent waste soil combination (WSC) to 11.11 ± 0.14 mg in 17.5 per cent waste soil combination WSC per g fresh weight of shoot. In root mercury accumulation increased from 9.43 ± 0.38 mg g^-1 in 2.5 percent WSC to 24.26 + 0.26 mg g^-1 fresh weight in 17.5 per cent WSC. The accumulation depended both on soil contamination and time. The root length and shoot length decreased with increase in waste soil contamination. The content of chlorophyll, nucleic acid and protein decreased with increasing soil contamination and time. The percentage decrease of root length is 57.02, shoot length is 52.60, Chl-a is 62.00, chl-b is 62.12, total chl is 61.70, carotenoid is 67.34, DNA is 68.61, RNA is 63.15 and that of protein is 77.29.Changes in these variables were significantly correlated with waste soil combination and mercury uptake.