Two cone-bearing trees have the astonishing habit of letting go their
leaves in the fall, and thus setting themselves apart from the
evergreens, to which they are otherwise closely related. Their cones are
like those of pines and spruces. Their leaves are needle-like, and their
flowers are the cone flowers like the rest. Although they stand bare in
winter time, their fruits declare their kinships with the evergreen.
Their forms also suggest this kinship, for each is a spire-like shaft,
from which short branches stand out horizontally like those of the
pointed firs and spruces.