We infer that once a partial melt has formed in a crustal protolith it may segregate from its complementary solid residue carrying small crystals of the peritectic phase assemblage formed in the melting reaction, and that the ratios of individual peritectic minerals in the entrained assemblage remains fixed in the ratio decreed by the stoichiometry of the melting reaction. For those elements with low solubilities in granitic melts, PAE (in varying degrees), accompanied by co-entrainment of accessory minerals, is responsible for most of the primary elemental variation in granitic magmas. In contrast, the concentrations of elements with high solubilities in silicic melts reflect the protolith compositions in a simple and direct way. The source is the primary control on granite magma chemistry; it dictates what is available to dissolve in the melt and what will be formed as the entrainable peritectic assemblage. The apparent complexity in granitic rock suites is largely a consequence of these processes in the source. All other mechanisms contribute only as a secondary overlay.