Origin of pegmatites

Pegmatites of several areas are described. It is contended that their properties and relationships support Fersman's idea that pegmatites are magmatic rather than hydrothermal or metasomatic. The principal arguments are as follows: 1) contacts of the pegmatite material are sharp where it occurs in the original bides or in xenolithic fragments; 2) later K-Na metasomatism affects pegmatites and enclosing granite the same way; 3) a pegmatite body contains the same minerals, including, accessories, whether the country rock is granite, diabase or limestone; 4) graphic texture occurs in some of the dikes; 5) there is strong differentiation in thick dikes; less, in thin ones (branches); 6) method of incorporation of xenoliths in pegmatites suggests viscous melt, not aqueous solution; 7) Xenoliths in pegmatite are'only slightly altered, if at all. -- E. Ingerson.