PARENCHYMORPHA XISHANICA,A NEW CYANOPHYTE FROM XISHA ISLANDS OF CHINA

A new cyanophyte, Parenchymorpha xishanica Tseng et Hua, gen. et sp. nov. has beendescribed on the basis of a collection from Zhongjiandao, Xisha Islands of Guangdong Prov-ince, China. A new family has also been proposed, namely, Parenchymorphataceae Tseng etHun, faro. nov. The rare Indian eyanophyte, Iyengariella tirupatiensis Desikaehary which is sim-ilar to the Chinese eyanophyte in several respects has been transferred from the Mastigocla-daeeae to the newly proposed family. A discussion has also been made on the systematicposition of the new genus and the new family which is considered to be close to the highlyevolved eyanophyte family Stigonemataceae.