A Soldier's Nickname If one is allowed to talk of
Palestine in an unpolitical reference, I have long been interested in the scarlet anemones—probably the lilies of the Bible—which carpet so many acres. It was therefore peculiarly satisfactory to hear that some of our long-suffering troops have earned a nickname from this lovely flower. It is called, I am assured, kalariot in Hebrew, and "this was the nickname by which the 6th Airborne Division became known to almost every Jewish child in Palestine." The red beret perhaps suggested the likeness, but it happened that a song called Kalariot was being sung in a revue in Tel Aviv when the Division arrived, and the children so closely associated the two that they set off singing the air as soon as they saw a red beret. My correspondent adds: "When I left Palestine in January the red anemones had not yet appeared, but the ground was covered with miniature white and purple cyclamen." That is a flower that I especially associate with Mount Carmel.
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