@Chad Given the [Amazon reviews of the book](https://www.amazon.com/Data-Structures-Algorithm-Analysis-Java/dp/0132576279) I would not be surprised if this turned out to just be an error on the author's part. I've taught suffix trees in an [advanced data structures class](http://web.stanford.edu/class/archive/cs/cs166/cs166.1166/) and spent a lot of time reading up on them, and I've never seen this representation used anywhere before.