But this was needless; my father had described the tree as 'noticeable and not to be missed,' nor was he wrong.

Barely had I counted five hundred paces when it rose into view, uncouth and monstrous.

All around it spread the crimson blossoms of huge rhododendrons; but this strange tree was at once unlike any of its fellows and of a kind altogether unknown to me.

Its roots were partly bare, and writhed in fantastic coils across the track.

Above these rose and spread its seven trunks matted with creepers, and then united about four feet below the point where the branches began.