Chlorophyll fluorescence excitation spectra of six phytoplankton species, belonging to Bacillariophyta and Dinophyta, were dealt by fourth-derivative analysis with the Matlab program. The results show that between 350 nm and 550 nm six fluorescence peaks were found in the fourth-derivative spectra, which are representatives of non-pigments, chlorophylls and carotenoides respectively. The method makes Bacillariophyta and Dinophyta more distinguishable when the fourth-derivative spectra are compared with the chlorophyll fluorescence excitation spectra. It can be used not only to discriminate the two groups of algaes, but also to reduce the effect of noise. The fluorescence peaks in the fourth-derivative spectra are proved to be stable.