We continually read the most astonishing statements by Europeans about things in America, and wonder why it is that every one must go from home to learn news of his next neighbor. We just took up an article by a famous botanist concerning what he saw in a recent trip to America. He tells us that the leaves of Ledum latifolium are extensively used in the Eastern (United) States as a substitute for Tea. We believe it has been used in Labrador, and therefore is known as Labrador tea, at least this may be a fair inference from its name; but it will be news to most of us that it is extensively used as tea in the Eastern States. Then we take up the London Daily News and learn that in the United States the telegraph poles are mainly of red cedar. We have seen some million poles, and it never occurred that any one was red cedar. We fancy red cedar could be put to much more profitable uses. Just how they get hold of these notions is the mystery. The traveller who " does " the United States in a couple of weeks or so, probably gathers all his facts from the loungers on railroad platforms, or bell boys at the hotels.