The study of form is the study of its transform on." -Goethe.The genesis of the endogenic carbonatites can be established primarily through a study of the carbonatites themselves, both as rocks and as aggregates of minerals. In doing this, however, one must first prove, on the basis of the factual material, that the textural-structural pattern being studied is primary -that it arose simultaneously with the rock's formation as an aggregate of minerals, and that the conditions of its genesis are recorded in it. -An example of the identification of primary and secondary structures and textures of the rocks is presented below.I distinguish the following stages in the textural and structural evolution of the carbonatites.Formation of the carbonatites -the moment of the appearance of the carbonatites as aggregates of minerals, as geologic bodies, and as rocks. From the physicochemical standpoint, the genesis of the carbonatites may be determined either by the filling of cavities by a moving or standing stagnant solution, or by the injection of a solution-melt into fractured structures, or again by the pseUdomorphotis replacement (metasomatisrn) of 'any substrate. This is the very moment of appearance of the crystals of the minerals that make up the carbonatites, and corresponds to the concept of the rock's genesis. The structural-textural features of the rock that arise in this stage are accordingly considered to be primary.Early metamorphism of the carbonatites (autometarnorphism) may begin immediately after the stage of their genesis, without interruption, and may be caused by magmatogenic heating (activation) of the rock or the presence of intergranular (pore) syngenetic solutions. The main processes characterizing this stage are recrystallization (granulation or, by contrast, increase in grain size) and autometasomatic reactions (for example, serpentinization of the forsterites, martitization of the magnetite, amphibolization of the pyroxenes and the like). This is most probably the stage of destruction of the "protocarbonates," accompanied by the formation of decay structures within the grains (for example, structures of the decomposition of dolomite in the early magnesial calcite) (VanclerVeen, 1965). In this stage the recrystallization of the rock's carbonate mass may so change the form of the boundaries between grains and the sizes of the grains themselves, that even the textural and structural patterns formed in the stage of genesis are also substantially altered. Subsequent superimposed metamorphism, including regional metamorphism, of the carbonatites is due mainly to external factors such as tectogenesis of the surrounding host rocks and the internal stresses arising as a result -regional metamorphism and epigenic superimpositions (the thermal fields of the intrusives, hot springs). The main forms of the alteration of carbonatites in this stage consist in the continuing process of recrystallization (often under "dry" conditions), metamorphic differentiation of the carbonatites with the spatial separation of...