AbstractThe initial stages in the development of spherulites from primary nuclei to spherical arrays of branching fibrils are included in the kinetics of polymer crystallisation. Since most of the experimental isotherms exhibit the required time dependence only over a limited range it is considered that the model has little use, and these initial stages in the development of spherulites have little effect on the degree of fit of the experimental isotherms to the Avrami rate equation.The general time dependences of crystallisations developing as a branching process is outlined and compared with that of the Avrami equations for growth of spherical particles.