Snowflake in the same micro-environment does not guarantee that each arm grow the same; indeed, for some crystal forms it does not because the underlying crystal growth mechanism also affects how fast each surface region of a crystal grows. Empirical studies suggest less than 0.1% of snowflakes exhibit the ideal six-fold symmetric shape. Very occasionally twelve branched snowflakes are observed; they maintain the six-fold symmetry. Snowflakes form in a wide variety of intricate shapes, leading to the notion that "no two are alike". Although nearly-identical snowflakes have been made in laboratory, they are very unlikely to be found in nature. Initial
The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down of gold! Then I awoke. I awoke to the silently falling snow and bent-backed elms bowing and swaying to the winter wind like white-robed Moslems salaaming at evening prayer, and the earth lying inscrutable like the face of a god in a shrine. </poem> The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down "The Snowflakes Sail Gently Down" is a poem by Nigerian writer Gabriel Okara. It contemplates its speaker's feelings on having left Africa and its culture. <poem style="margin-left:2em"> The snow flakes sail gently down from the misty eye of the sky and fall lightly lightly on the winter-weary elms. And the branches,