Apparently the vegetable kingdom in Mars, instead of having green

for a dominant colour, is of a vivid blood-red tint. At any rate, the

seeds which the Martians (intentionally or accidentally) brought with

them gave rise in all cases to red-coloured growths. Only that known

popularly as the red weed, however, gained any footing in competition

with terrestrial forms. The red creeper was quite a transitory

growth, and few people have seen it growing. For a time, however, the

red weed grew with astonishing vigour and luxuriance. It spread up

the sides of the pit by the third or fourth day of our imprisonment,

and its cactus-like branches formed a carmine fringe to the edges of

our triangular window. And afterwards I found it broadcast throughout

the country, and especially wherever there was a stream of water.

The Martians had what appears to have been an auditory organ, a

single round drum at the back of the head-body, and eyes with a visual

range not very different from ours except that, according to Philips,

blue and violet were as black to them. It is commonly supposed that

they communicated by sounds and tentacular gesticulations; this is

asserted, for instance, in the able but hastily compiled pamphlet

(

written evidently by someone not an eye-witness of Martian actions)

to which I have already alluded, and which, so far, has been the chief

source of information concerning them. Now no surviving human being

saw so much of the Martians in action as I did. I take no credit to

myself for an accident, but the fact is so. And I assert that I

watched them closely time after time, and that I have seen four, five,

and (once) six of them sluggishly performing the most elaborately

184

The War of the Worlds