Nucleation and crystal growth of plagioclase have been studied in two basaltic melts by one atmosphere, constant-rate and variable-rate cooling experiments using the wire-loop technique (Donaldson et al., 1975). Constant-rate cooling studies indicate that the length of the incubation period prior to nucleation varies systematically with the degree of supercooling and with the cooling rate. Attempts to determine the rates at which the marginal parts of two dykes (from the Isle of Arran, SW Scotland) cooled, by the attempted reproduction of the natural textural features, in constant-rate cooling experiments suggest that for one of the dykes, plagioclase phenocrysts at the contact could have grown at a cooling rate of approximately 3°C/hour and the groundmass plagioclase laths at faster cooling rates in excess of 10°C/hour. For the other dyke the plagioclase laths in the rocks 0.5 cm from the dyke contact probably grew at rates slower than 2°C/hour. Attempts to validate experimentally the Jaeger (1957) cooling model for the two dykes suggest that the dykes cooled at much slower rates than the theory predicts.