We study the effect of variable viscosity on the flow and vortex instability for non-Darcy mixed convection boundary layer flow on a nonisothermal horizontal plat surface in a saturated porous medium. The variation of viscosity is expressed as an exponential function of temperature. The analysis of the disturbance flow is based on linear stability theory. The base flow equations and the resulting eigenvalue problem are solved using finite difference schemes. It is found that the variable viscosity effect enhances the heat transfer rate and destabilizes the flow for liquid heating,while the opposite trend is true for gas heating.