When gels and glasses of alkali feldspar composition are crystallized hydrothermally below their solidus the crystals present when crystallization is incomplete do not have the same Na:K ratio as the starting material but bear a relation to the starting material analogous to that between crystals and liquids coexisting at the liquidus. This effect has been investigated in the temperature range 700–850 °C at water-vapour pressures between 5000 lb/in.² and 30000 lb/in.² Fractionation and normal zoning of crystals may, in principle, occur within fixed bulk compositions held under isothermal, isobaric conditions.