. "For example, Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 6-145851 discloses a hydrogen storage alloy obtained by rapidly cooling and solidifying an alloy melt composed mainly of La and Ni with the atomic ratio of Ni to La being not higher than 4.9, which alloy is finely crystallized to have alloy crystals having the length along the short axis of not more than 10 ??m." . . .