Table Of ContentReview
Reviewed Work(s): Design of Experiments by
Review by: H.C. Dawkins
Source: The Commonwealth Forestry Review, Vol. 57, No. 3 (173) (September 1978), p. 230
Published by: Commonwealth Forestry Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/42607478
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230 REVIEWS
T. scleroxylon has a wide east-west distribution (3900 km spreading across 13 countries) in West
Africa but is generally confined to the narrow band of low-lying humid tropical forest with a few
isolated occurrences in drier derived savannah areas. Together with Terminalia superba and
Cholorphora excelsa, Triplochiton scleroxylon is described as one of the longer living pioneer species,
and a component of a secondary, closed forest community which develops as a result of colonization
after clearing for cultivation. Despite an erratic flowering and fruiting habit, the species is abundant
over most of its range. It is absent from undisturbed climax forest. From an ecological viewpoint, it
would seem that T. scleroxylon has the attributes which are found in many of the more successful
plantation species in the tropics and it may only be the difficulty of raising stock on a regular basis
which has prevented it from assuming an important role in plantations and enrichment planting
schemes. It was logical, therefore, that work in the project centred initially on solving the problems of
reproduction and propagation.
Rapid progress was made in developing techniques for handling fruit, and seed can now be stored
for up to three years. However, inadequate and erratic fruiting still makes it difficult to raise large
stocks of seedlings. A major portion of the report is devoted to describing methods of vegetative
propagation, particularly by cuttings with which success was so good that costs are comparable with
those for seedling production. There is a very rapid fall-off in rooting ability with increasing age but
the juvenile condition of the ortet can be maintained by repeated cutting back.
Despite its wide and, in parts, discontinuous distribution, little evidence was found of any clinal
variation in T. scleroxylon. On the other hand a large amount of tree to tree phenotypic variation in
bole and crown morphology has been noted. The progress made on propagation by seed and cuttings,
and knowledge gained on flowering behaviour, have permitted the project to embark on a long-term
programme of genetic improvement and the study of variation within the species using clonal stock.
Extensive experimental plantings (30 ha) have been made in a number of sites in Nigeria using
material collected throughout the distribution range in West Africa. These will form an important
part of future work to exploit the potential, and also to avoid the dangers, inherent in a system where
propagation is by vegetative means.
Throughout the report, good clear histograms, graphs and diagrams are used with excellent effect.
The photographs on nine plates are well chosen to illustrate important points but their reproduction
does not do them credit. There is a comprehensive table of contents which makes it easy to use the
report as a reference work and a useful bibliography of over 170 of the more useful references on T.
scleroxylon.
The authors' intention is that the publication should serve as a working document for further work
on this project and particularly as a research model for a similar approach with other species. In my
opinion, substantial progress has been made in an important area of tropical forestry and the
Forestry Research Institute of Nigeria has achieved impressive results in this cooperative programme
with the United Kingdom.
R.D. Barnes
Design of Experiments.
Statistical Checklist No. 1, issued by the Institute of Terrestrial Ecology, is a seven-page folding
pamphlet written by John Jeffers, now the Director of that Institute. It lists 71 questions which an
experimenter must ask before a field experiment is laid out, with the object of checking that he is not
about to do something stupid, unsound, ineffective, wasteful or perhaps merely inefficient. The
questions are arranged in nine stages: objectives, defining the population, selecting treatments, plot
shape and size, replication, layout, randomization, recording, and analysis. Finally, Question
7 1 - "If you are in doubt about the purpose of any of the questions in this checklist, should you not
obtain some advice from a statistician ... ?" Indeed you should! There is a well-chosen bibliography
of twelve books, and the pamphlet is available for 30p if a stamped-addressed envelope is sent to
Publications Officer, I.T.E., 68 Hills Road, Cambridge. In my view, this pamphlet should most
certainly be read by every forest researcher before he sets out his next experiment, and by every
authority about to approve - or disapprove - somebody else's experiment.
H.C. Dawkins
Wildland Fire Management, A Systems Approach, by A.J. Simard. Canadian Forestry Service,
Forestry Technical Report 17, 1977. v + 25pp.
The application of systems theory is now widespread in many different disciplines. The general
theory of systems is a methodology designed to analyse systems exhibiting collective behaviour
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