ON ERYTHROPHLEUM JUDICIALE. 
201 
in the horse chestnut, and other American trees. The remark 
of Mr. Brown in reference to the aestivation of Erythrophleum and 
Parkia, is true of this species ; on a few of the spikes, the termi- 
nal flowers had not expanded, others but partially so, with the 
stigma protruding, in which the valvate relatiorship of the petals 
was sufficiently apparent. 
The chemical researches relative to the active principle of the bark 
have not been resumed at this time, but may be continued on another 
occasion. In illustration of the singular use to which sassy bark 
is put by the natives, the following quotation from Winterbottom's 
Sierra Leone, (page 129, vol. i.) may prove interesting. 
" Upon the Gold Coast, the ordeal consists in chewing the bark, 
w 7 ith the prayer that it may cause his [the accused] death, if he be 
not innocent. In the neighborhood of Sierra Leone, the most usual 
mode of trial resembles that by bitter water, formerly in use 
among the Jews, and is called red water by the Africans. 
" The red water is prepared by infusing the bark of a tree, called 
by the Bulloms, kwon, by the Timmanees, okwon, and by the 
Soosoos, millee, in water to which it imparts a powerfully emetic 
and sometimes purgative quality. In some instances it has proved 
immediately fatal, which leads to a suspicion, that occasionally 
some other addition must be made to it, as it does not appear that 
the delicate are more liable to be thus violently affected by it than 
the robust. To prevent, however, any suspicion of improper con- 
duct, the red water is always administered in the most public 
manner in the open air, and in the midst of a large concourse of 
people, who, upon these solemn occasions, never fail to assemble 
from all quarters, particularly the women, to whom it affords as good 
an opportunity of displaying their finery and taste in dress, as a 
country wake in England does to the neighboring females. The 
accused is placed on a kind of stool three feet high, one hand being 
held up, and the other on his thigh, and beneath the seat are spread 
a number of fresh plantain leaves. A circle of about seven or eight 
feet in diameter is formed around the prisoner, and no one is admitted 
within it but the person who prepares the red water. The bark is 
publicly exposed, to show that it is genuine. The operator first 
washes his own hands, and then the bark, as well the mortar and 
pestle with which it is to be powdered, to prove that nothing im- 
proper is concealed therein. When powdered, a calabash full is 
