452 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
June 7, 1894, 
A TRIP TO ANTWERP. 
A FEW years ago when the British tourist crossed over to Belgium 
he found, if his watch kept time accurately, that it was a quarter of an 
hour behind when he passed the Cathedral clock at Antwerp as he 
floated up the Scheldt. If the watch had gone right on the way it 
would be wrong on his arrival, whereas if it had gone right it would be 
wrong. This apparent paradox once puzzled a rustic voyager, and 
when the cause was explained to him he simply replied he had “ for¬ 
gotten the sun,” meaning the longitude. But all is altered now, for 
Greenwich time has been adopted in Belgium, and the change appears 
to give general satisfaction. A few opponents pretended to fear it 
would lead to serious disturbance, if not to a revolution ; but there 
was only about a week of grumbling in places at the change, then all 
was peace. 
Two or three things will strike the wandering pilgrim before he has 
been long in the city. He will find the dogs working with a will, and 
generally looking happy and well (much better than the cab horses), 
as they trot along with milk or vegetable carts, or in taking groceries 
round. True, they may pull and pant when yoked with a man or 
woman to a load of sand, and the tender-hearted humanitarian will be 
apt to pity them, while psssibly overlooking the equal exertions of their 
human helpers. Then the explorer, if he has tender feet, and the 
weather is hot, will be apt to “ feel ” the pavement, and think it is 
FIG. 73. —MR. CHARLES VAN GEERT. 
open to improvement. It is as well, however, not to complain, or he 
may be told Englishmen are spoiled by luxuries. It is curious that 
there are a large number of persons in every country who seem to think 
that every other country is better than their own. Those persons, how¬ 
ever, appear to do the best who make the best of their opportunities 
whatever they are and wherever they may be. 
Going to the Exhibition; 
The tired wayfarer can do one thing better in Antwerp than in 
England—namely, “ iump into a tram.” The Antwerp cars are 
delightfully simple. They have a top, bottom, and ends, but no sides 
in summer, with a foot-board the whole length just above the ground, 
and travellers step on and off on either side, taking or vacating the 
seats that are arranged across the floor. These vehicles are light, drawn 
by one horse, start from busy points every minute (every half minute on 
Sundays), fares low, and the company pays about 25 per cent, on capital. 
It is better to be a tram shareholder in Antwerp than London. It is by 
these conveyances that so many persons go to the Exhibition. They 
appear to be always going, and it is certain many thousands will find 
their way there during the season. 
It must be nearing completion now. A month ago the most inter¬ 
esting feature was “ Old Antwerp,” an accurate and realistic presentation 
of the city 300 years ago. The houses are tenanted, and the trades 
conducted as of old, all connected with the city of the past, wearing the 
peculiar habiliments of the time according to the social position and 
vocation of the wearers. Old London was represented at the South 
Kensington Exhibition a few years ago, but Old Antwerp excels it in 
extent and completeness. The greatest possible care has been exercised 
on the question of fidelity in the execution of all details, and Mr. Max 
Booses, the eminent archaeologist and Director of the famous Plantin 
Museum, has won golden opinions for his researches that were essential 
to the carrying out of the work. His daughter in ancient costume had 
the honour of an introduction to the Queen on the opening of the 
Exhibition, and presented Her Majesty with flowers. The mention of 
this young lady leads directly, but through two generations, to the 
mention of another personality of Antwerp, and undoubtedly the chief 
personality in horticulture there, for Miss Rooses is the granddaughter 
of Mr. Charles Van Geert, who was the guide, philosopher, and friend 
of the writer of these lines in his wanderings—and blunderings. In the 
latter capacity he is an expert when he gets out of his familiar groove, 
and he had a narrow escape in getting switched off to Holland without 
“bag and baggage” instead of into a local train. Subsequently his 
friend kept him right abroad, no easy task, though not at all difficult 
at home, as at least so people say, though he is himself conscious of his 
proneness to go wrong. 
An Old Citizen. 
In a great gathering in Antwerp a gentleman of position remarked 
to this right and wrong sort of a man, “ Ah, Mr. Wrong (he was right 
there), you have—a-what-do-you-call-him ?—oh ! a ‘ Grand Old Man ’ in 
England.” “ Yes, we have several fine men in England.” “ Ah 1 but 
you know who I do mean ; and we have a ‘ Grand Old Man ’ in Antwerp, 
and here he is—Mr. Van Geert.” Though he would be the first to waive 
any claim to this distinction, yet if long experience, highmindedness, 
great professional knowledge, linguistic acquirements, and universal 
respect entitle to it, Mr. Van Geert cannot cast it aside, and it is hoped 
he will not object to the publication of his portrait. 
As to long professional experience he would be likely to tell the modern 
Britisher more about his country and some of its former inhabitants 
than he himself knew. He would take him back to the pre-railway 
days and journeys up to London, thence to Exeter and other places by 
coach. He would interest him by vivid references to the old Dahlia 
days and Dahlia men—Colvill, Mountjoy, Widnall, Brewer, Brown, and 
others, and talk of Loddiges of Hackney and Chandler of Vauxhall as if 
they were in existence now. The Dahlia reminiscences might perhaps bring 
out something that is new to the present generation. It should be said 
that Mr. Van Geert is a gentleman of wealth. He may almost be 
described as the creator of a town, as he certainly is of splendid streets, 
one bearing his name and another that of horticulture. Rue de Van 
Geert, or Van Geert Straat, Rue de I’Horticulture, Rue Dodoens, and so 
on, on land he bought in past days for his nursery. 
As every effect has its cause, so it is true that important results have 
not infrequently occurred from causes which at the time might have 
escaped the notice of many. It will not perhaps be far from tbe truth 
to suggest that the foundation of Mr. Van Geert’s present position 
rests to a large extent on Dahlias, and to the exercise of his observant 
powers on one of his visits to England, which commenced about sixty 
years ago. 
It was something in this way, but first let it be said that the founder 
of the Antwerp Nursery, the father of the present proprietor, was 
originally engaged in nursery work in Ghent as a foreman, and had 
achieved fame as a propagator. He purchased a small plot of land 
outside the old fortifications of Antwerp, and commenced business there 
about 1825. Another member of the family acquired land in Ghent, 
and was a pioneer of the great system of nurseries that became estab¬ 
lished. The name is still familiar there, but Mr. Auguste Van Geert 
eventually sold his heritage, and joined the rich brotherhood of 
brewers. There is, however, one (perhaps more) direct link of the name 
with horticulture, Pynaert Van Geert. All British gardeners do not 
know that when a lady of property marries in Belgium her name is 
retained with that of her husband’s, and hence Mr. Pynaert’s added 
name—Van Geert. 
A Dahlia Discovery. 
To return to Antwerp. Mr. Charles Van Geert became a partner 
with his father about 1848. The senior, it would seem, gave his atten¬ 
tion to the multiplication of plants, the junior mainly to their distribu¬ 
tion, not at home merely, but over the different countries of Europe 
through which he travelled, no doubt perfecting himself in the languages 
at the same time. In those early days the Dahlia loomed above the 
horizon, and took the world by storm. It would seem as if plants of 
new and famous varieties could not be increased fast enough, and it is 
to be noted that the method of increase was then rather slow—division 
of the tubers. Then it was that the experienced propagator made a dis¬ 
covery. A very simple matter it may appear now, but it was very 
different then. Fancy if a Chrysanthemum grower could hit on a 
method of increasing tbe new varieties, which thousands of persons long 
to obtain, twenty times more quickly than by existing methods 1 Would 
he not be in luck’s way—a veritable child of fortune 1 Charles Van 
Geert the first, then, discovered that with the aid of bii^k heat the young 
growths of Dahlias could be rooted as cuttings, and there he touched 
gold. He forced and topped and rooted over and over again, raising a 
hundred plants of a new and scarce variety in the same time that a 
dozen were produced in the then orthodox way. It is not conceivable 
that the fact was proclaimed from the house tops, and it was not very 
difficult to keep the secret long enough for it to pay in the obscure little 
nursery to which floral pilgrims had not yet found their way. Charles 
the second, perhaps, did not desire their presence in large numbers at 
that particular time; at any rate, instead of inviting the Dahlia 
cognoscenti from other lands to see the new methods at home, he thought 
it better to go and see the Dahlia shows and growers abroad. They 
would feel it a great compliment, no doubt, that a fancier should travel 
so far by sea and land—in those non-travelling days—to admire their 
precious treasures. Then, when he would select the bes-t and give long 
prices for them, it may be expected they would treat their visitor well, 
get all the orders they could out of him, sleep the sleep of the just, and, 
mayhap, dream about the foreign man losing the delicate “ roots ” and 
