OBSERVATIONS ON SASSY BARK. 
303 
a tree called "sassa," which yields the sassa gum of African com- 
merce, and he gives two figures which represent the leaves and 
flowers. The tree is very analogous in general appearance to 
that of the sassy bark, flowering in a terminal raceme, with bipin- 
nate leaves, the folioles of which, however, are opposite, whilst 
those of the sassy are alternate. This tree is the Inga Sassa of 
Willdenow. (Decandolle.) 
In the appendix to Tuckey's voyage, &c, it is stated that "One 
of the unpublished genera is Erythrophleum, the red-water tree of 
Sierra Leone, another species of which is the ordeal "plant orcassa 
of the natives of Congo." This remark is more to the point 
than any that has been found, because as Sierra Leone is near the 
locality whence the sassy bark is derived, and as there is strong 
reason for believing the cassa bark of Congo (why not sassa or 
sassy as a derivation or corruption ?) and sassy bark to be identi- 
cal, the former of which is attributed to a leguminous tree, said 
to be a species of Erythrophleum, (vid. ante) is it not reason- 
able to refer the sassy bark tree of Cape Palmas to the same 
genus, or at least to one nearly allied, and perhaps not yet 
described? 
Lindley, in his last edition of "The Vegetable Kingdom,' 5 
places the genus Erythrophleum of Afzelius in the Natural Order, 
Fabace^, sub-order Mimose^, and tribe Parkier. 
Endlicher, Genera Plant, page 1323, characterizes the genus 
Erythrophleum of Afzelius thus : — " Flores hermaphroditi, regu- 
lares. Calyx quinquefidus subimbricatus. Corollce petala 5. 
Stamina perigyna. Legumen compressum, bivalve, polyspermum. 
Arbor Africse tropicse, excelsa ; foliis bipinnatis, foliolis oppositis ; 
racemis terminalibus et lateralibus." This agrees with the 
specimens of sassy, as far as they go, except in the position of 
the folioles, which will now be described. 
The sassy bark is produced by a large tree with spreading 
branches. In the general appearance of its fructification and 
foliage it resembles the Gymnocladus of the United States. The 
leaves (a) arebipinnate, the pinnee are articulated oppositely on the 
general petiole, and vary from three to six or seven on a side, 
according as they are taken from near the terminus of a branch 
or below ; in the last case they are larger, and generally the 
pinnae nearest the apex are largest. The folioles are subpetio- 
late, obliquely ovate, and acuminate, from one to three inches 
