Spectrophotometric determination of some heavy lanthanide ions by flow injection method is described. Xylenol Orange forms water soluble chelates with lanthanide ions in a tris[hydroxymethyl]-aminomethane-buffered medium having pH 8.3 and containing cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. The molar absorptivities of Ln(III)-XO complexes were increased by the ternary system with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide with the concomitant bathochromic shift of absorption maxium compared to those of the binary system without cetyltrimethylammonium bromide. The calibration curves are linear in the range 0.25-1.00 ppm for Gd(III), Dy(III), Er(III), Tm(III) and Yb(III) and the dynamic range are very wide. The detection limits (S/N=2) are from 2 ppb for Gd(III) to 30 ppb for Yb(III) and the relative standard deviations are from 1.2% for 0.5 ppm Gd(III) to 1.8% for 0.5 ppm Yb(III). The sample throughput was ca. 50 $h^{-1}$.