PRICKLY PEARS AND MARTIAN WEEDS - Rethinking Invasion Ecologies from the Environmental Humanities - page 140

conclusive answer to this question is possible, Wells echoes contemporary scientific
accounts of introduced species.
Further points of similarity between Hamilton's article and Wells's description
of invasive alien vegetation are also evident. Hamilton notes that, of all the plants
deliberately or accidentally introduced into an environment, 'a large number do
not spread to any extent' and never become pests in human eyes (ibid.: 162). Wells
makes a similar point by juxtaposing the wildly flourishing red weed with the less
adaptable red creeper, 'quite a transitory growth' that never 'gained any footing in
competition with terrestrial forms' (Wells, [1898] 2009: 150). Additionally, though
Hamilton is primarily concerned with the impact of introduced species in Australia,
he describes similar cases in New Zealand and America, demonstrating his aware-
ness that the phenomenon of unruly introduced species was recurrent and was not
confined to any single region of the globe. Wells can be read as extrapolating from
this recurrent, world-wide pattern in his depiction of the same phenomenon on
an extra-terrestrial scale. Hamilton's article is also suggestive in its recurrent
reference to introduced species as 'aliens', a characterisation which, alongside
Darwin's description of 'the invasion of the cardoon' (Hamilton, 1893: 162;
Darwin, 1839: 139), suggests that Wells's tale of invasive alien plants can be read
as an elaboration of contemporary scientific accounts of introduced species.
The long-term outcome that Hamilton predicts also anticipates elements of
Wells's narrative. Consideration of a range of examples, particularly in America,
suggested to Hamilton that while in many cases an introduced species 'at first
completely beat the native, it is noteworthy that now the natives are holding their
own' (Hamilton, 1893: 163). He quotes a New Zealand botanist, T. Kirk, as saying,
'At length a turning point is reached, the invaders lose a portion of their vigour,
and become less encroaching, while the indigenous plants find the struggle less
severe and gradually recover a portion of their lost ground' (Hamilton, 1893: 163).
He also relates his own experience of reading 'doleful prophecies of the damage
that might be expected when the Cape weed ( Cryptostemma calendulaceum ) became
common [in Australia]' before watching '[i]t spread to a great extent in certain spots
for a couple of years and then almost disappear' (ibid.: 163). These scenarios
roughly parallel the fate of Wells's Martian red weed, wiped out by terrestrial
bacteria against which it had no immunity. Hamilton's observations illustrate the
contemporary awareness of a range of possible outcomes that might result from the
introduction of a plant species to a new environment: complete failure to take hold;
moderate success: rampant, uncontrollable spread; and temporary efflorescence
followed by precipitous decline. Wells enacts a number of these possibilities
through his presentation of the red creeper and red weed, suggesting his absorption
of contemporary knowledge on the subject.
Beyond the general correspondence between Wells's representation of the
Martian red weed and late nineteenth-century knowledge of introduced species,
certain features of the red weed call up specific historical associations. The narrator
of The War of the Worlds describes the red weed as 'cactus-shaped plants' with
'cactus-like branches' forming dense 'thicket[s]' that were sometimes 'knee-high',