Chemical and single crystal X-ray studies have shown the existence of a 9-layer polytype of taaffeite. The parameters of the hexagonal unit-cell are a 5·675 Å, c 41·096 Å (arh 14·085 Å, α 23·24°). The oxide composition of the mineral is Al2O3 71·44, MgO 15·76, FeO 6·78, BeO 5·50%. It is pale olive green, with refractive indices ω = 1·739, ε = 1·735, and a specific gravity of 3·68.

There is an important corollary to Prior's rule to the effect that as the state of oxidation of meteorites is increased the quantity of olivine increases relative to pyroxene and metallic iron. We have derived a rigorous parametric expression for this corollary and find that, as in the case of the quantitative interpretation of the rule itself, there is in this case also a fair correspondence to the observational data, so that the validity of the rule is further supported.

A giant chondrule, nearly 4 cm in diameter, has been found in the Parnallee meteorite, and is described, with analysis. An estimate of the composition of the partly devitrified groundmass falls within the known compositional range of chondrule glasses. The bulk composition of the chondrule is very close to the bulk composition of the meteorite excluding metal and sulphide.

An interpretation of part of the hydroxyl-stretching region of the infra-red absorption spectrum of biotite is proposed. A consideration of band shapes enables the interpretation to be quantified and tested against a series of natural biotites. The equation derived may be used to determine the atomic ratio Mg2+/(Mg2++Fe2+) in biotites but the necessary assumptions and simplifications make it unlikely that the method will be very useful in practice.

Specimens of trachyte obtained on a recent visit to the Kaiserstuhl are compared with similar potassium-rich rocks from carbonatite complexes in Africa. Two new chemical analyses are given, in which the values for alkalis (Na2O 1·21, K2O 12·63; Na2O 0·92, K2O 12·18 %) are of interest.

The chemical compositions of eighty granitic rocks from the Lewisian of the North-West Highlands of Scotland, particularly from the Gairloch district, are set out in relation to geological occurrence and their normative proportions of albite, orthoclase, quartz, and anorthite compared with experimental data relating to the systems NaAlSi3O8-KAlSi3O8-SiO2-H2O and KAlSi3O8-NaAlSi2O8-CaAl2Si2O8-SiO2. The field of composition for these Lewisian rocks moves from Ab-Q-rich for autochthonous granites to Ab = Or = Q (approximately) for parautochthonous granites to Or-rich for intrusive granites. This trend is related to the varying roles of mineral solubility under stress, selective melting, and potassium metasomatism.

Several restricted outcrops of potash-rich volcanic rocks occur in the Spanish provinces of Murcia and Almeria, where they form intrusive pitchstones or surface lavas among country rocks consisting of Tertiary and Quaternary sediments: the volcanic rocks include jumillites and verites from the type localities of Jumilla and Vera and it is these rocks that have been investigated. Jumillites are basic lavas, sometimes coarse-grained, rich in MgO, CaO, K2O, TiO2, and P2O8, poor in SiO2, Al2O3, and Na2O and they contain important, if minor, concentrations of Cr2O3, BaO, SrO, and ZrO2. Their mineralogy is distinctive: chrome diopside, forsterite, titaniferous phlogopite, kataphorite, and sanidine, with rare leucite. Verites, typically, are black pitchstones or pitchstone breccias that range from basic to acid in composition ; they are more variable in their chemistry than jumillites, but in part this variation might be due to introduction of silicate and carbonate into some of the verites during extensive hydrothermal alteration, which has undoubtedly affected their initial chemistry. Mineralogically, verites are simpler than jumillites and have fewer phenocrysts: forsterite, some diopside, phlogopite, and, occasionally, leucite. Certain mineralogical and compositional similarities of jumillites and verites suggest they may have originated from the same type of parental magma. Their mineralogy and chemistry also relate the jumillites and verites to phlogopite-bearing potash-rich volcanics from East Africa, America, and Australia and it seems possible that all these rocks might have a common parent in mica peridotite or mica pyroxenite.

A garnet-olivine metaperidotite and a garnet-amphibole pyroxenite are described. Chemical analyses are presented for six rocks and optical properties and chemical analyses are tabulated for clinopyroxene, almandine-pyrope garnet, and hastingsitie amphibole from the garnet-amphibole pyroxenite. A possible origin for the garnet peridotite and chemically similar granulite facies ultramafic rocks is suggested. The eclogite facies in South Harris is reinstated in the light of the data presented.

Though the transitional members between the pyralspite and grandite series occur only very sporadically, there exists under favourable conditions a perfect miscibility between grossular on the one hand, and spessartine or almandine or pyrope on the other. The conditions favouring this miscibility are discussed.

The minor elements Li, Sc, V, Cr, Co, Ni, Ga, Rb, and Sr have been determined in a number of diopsides and horneblendes from ultramafic rocks of the Gussevogorsk, Baranchinsk, and Nizhne-Tagilsk massifs in the Urals. Actinolite and anthophyllite are rare contact metamorphic products ; they too were analysed. The diopside and hornblende from the earlier-formed rocks, richer in olivine, contain more Cr and less V and Ti than those from the later-formed rocks.

A number of new alkaline-earth-rare-earth silicate and germanate compounds with the apatite-type structure have been synthesized including a new calcium lanthanum silicate, Ca4La6(SiO4)6(OH)2, which has a 9·63 Å, c 7·12, and c/a 0·740. This has a random distribution of Ca2+ and La3+ over the (4f) and (6h) sites in the lattice. X-ray data are given for Ca4La6(SiO4)6(OH)2 together with cell dimensions for other synthetic silicate and germanate apatites. Silicate apatites with partially occupied or vacant halogen (2a) sites analogous to those of the pyro- morphites have been prepared, and a classification for silicate apatites based on synthetic end-members is proposed.

The principal reflectivities of orthorhombic calcium monoferrite have been determined at 500 Å intervals from 4500 to 6500 Å. A small amount of calcium hexaferrite was shown to be present by electron probe examination.

Earlier palaeomagnetic studies on the Dunedin volcano showed that a portion of the sequence is reversely or anomalously magnetized. Some of the rocks used for palaeomagnetic study were subsequently classified into groups according to their thermomagnetic behaviour (unpublished work).

Cell dimensions and Curie-point curves have been measured for oxides separated from representative rocks of each group. The oxides are mostly homogeneous titanomagnetites containing between 40 and 55 mol. % of ulvöspinel, with a generally small degree of late low-temperature alteration. X-ray and thermomagnetic data also suggest that there was some early oxidation to titanomaghemite, probably during cooling.

The thermomagnetic behaviour of rocks classified in the different groups is attributed to variable oxidation of the titanomagnetite during thermomagnetic treatment. The high Curie points of rocks used for palaeomagnetic studies may often be due merely to oxidation of titaniferous magnetite and not to nearly pure primary Fe3O4. Since there is insufficient oxidation in the lavas examined for any currently accepted self-reversal process to have been operative, the reversely magnetized part of the Dunedin sequence was probably erupted during a reversed polarity epoch, possibly between about 13 and 11 million years ago.

The basanitic lavas contain minor amounts of chromiferous spinel, as inclusions in silicate phenocrysts and as cores to separate microphyric titanomagnetite; its significance is briefly discussed.

The compound Li2Zr(WO4)3 has been synthesized. It has the monoclinic wolframite-type structure with cell dimensions a 4·78Å, b 5·70 Å, c 4·96 Å, and β 92° 10′. The univalent and tetravalent cations are randomly arranged in the divalent cation sites in the wolframite-type lattice.

Originally described in phonolitic rocks from the Dunedin district, New Zealand, ameletite was considered by Marshall (1929) to be a chlorine-bearing sodium aluminium silicate, probably a feldspathoid, and later, a zeolite of unspecified composition. Optical, X-ray, and chemical data on several ‘ameletite’-bearing felsic volcanic rocks from the type area indicate that material previously designated as ameletite is variously nepheline and mixtures of sodalite, analcime, phillipsite, and nepheline. Criteria thought to be characteristic of ameletite are discussed.

This paper describes a harmotome from the Korsnäs mine in Finland, which occurs in the same open cavity as the yellow apophyllite previously reported in this journal. The harmotome is always twinned according to the morvenite and Marburg laws. Chemical composition, optical properties, X-ray powder pattern, and single crystal data are given.