Verticillium dahliae may be classified into the two basic groups, defoliate and non-defoliate, in terms of the pathogenicity reaction of 19 isolates of Verticillium dahliae on 16 cotton varieties. According to the comprehensive resistant or susceptible expression of 8 defoliate isolates on 8 upland cotton varieties R02,R04, R05, R06, R08, R09, R11 and R14, the defoliate isolates were for the first time divided into three categories: strong pathogenic (XS4 as the representative), mediun with inclination to strong pathogenic (T9 as the representative) and medium pathogenic (VD8 as the representative). Through the resistance identification of varieties such as R05, R06, R08, R09, R11 and R14, the defoliate isolate VD8 originated from Nantong of Jiangsu Province may be efficiently distinguished from the defoliate isolate 19 originated from USA. In nondefoliate category, utilizing 4 upland varieties R15, R14, R13 and R10, it might be possible to identify the different pathogenic genes in 7 isolates XJ4, XJ1, AY, VD404, VD326, LY, BP2 and may be nominated as No. 1 to No. 7 biological races respectively. The upland variety R01 is capable of resisting to all the isolates used in the experiments. While upland variety R12, may be used to identify strongly pathogenic isolate, which displayed a specific function in identifying strong pathogenic isolate strains.