New South Wales and much of Queensland was found by Cook to be fairly well watered, with innumerable small brooks and springs, but no great rivers. Access to the coast was much obstructed by the dense mangrove thickets. Eucalyptus was the most prominent type of tree in the forests. Cook observed two sorts of this "gum tree", with its "narrow leaves not much unlike those of a willow", and its gum of a deep-red colour. The pine trees[88] he mentions were probably species of _Araucaria_ and _Frenela_ (miscalled _Callitris_). They found three different kinds of palm[89], that which grew in the southern part of New South Wales had fan-shaped fronds, and the heart of the palm (namely, the undeveloped fronds--the cabbage, as it was called by the mariners in those days, who depended on it so much for vegetable food) was exceedingly sweet to the taste. The nuts which it bore in great abundance were good food for pigs. The second palm, also producing an edible cabbage, had large pinnated fronds like those of the coconut; and the third kind, which, like the second, was found only in northern Queensland, was seldom more than 10 feet high, with fronds resembling those of a large fern. It bore no cabbage, but a plentiful crop of nuts the size of a large chestnut only rounder, nuts that were probably roasted and eaten by the aborigines. Nevertheless, when eaten by Europeans, they proved almost poisonous, causing them to vomit and to be purged with great violence. [88] The _Conifers_ or "pines" (they are not of the actual pine or fir family of the northern hemisphere) of Australia belong chiefly to the following types (I am informed by Doctor Otto Stapf of Kew Gardens): _Frenela_, resembling the South African _Callitris_; _Araucaria_ (Monkey-puzzle trees); _Podocarpus_ (related to the yews); _Phyllocladus_ (often miscalled a "spruce" fir); _Dacrydium_, _Dammara_ (a conifer producing much pitch or resin); _Arthotaxis_ (in growth like a cypress); _Actinostrobus_; _Diselma_; _Microcochys_; and _Pherosphæra_. [89] The palms of Australia, according to a list kindly drawn up by Dr. Stapf, belong to the following genera: _Calamus_ (the climbing rattan or "cane" palms of northern Australia); _Kentia_, a genus of six species of fan-shaped fronds, one of which was Cook's "cabbage palm" with "nuts that were good for pigs"; _Clinostigma_; _Ptychosperma_ (a genus extending to Tahiti and Fiji); _Areca_ (probably Cook's "second cabbage palm"); _Arenga_; _Caryota_; and _Licuala_. This last genus of low-growing palms was probably the third kind described by Cook, with fronds like a fern and nuts like chestnuts.