The scent of the box bushes burning in the incessant sun of summer appeals to many and repels others. Some say it smells like cat's pee. But then recall that the civet cat's anal gland secretions has been a basis for many a perfume! Although common in the limestone districts of France, in England it is found in a wild state in only three locations. This distribution is odd enough for comment. The most famous site is that of Box Hill, a chalkland slope in Surrey. The box blossoms in March and at this dull time for flowers many insects take advantage of its nectar. The flowers arise as a tight bundle in the axils of the leading leaves. They lack normal petals. The male and female flowers are separate but nevertheless are crowded together. There is always one female flower at the top of the bundle and the males are below. In effect, the evolutionary process has caused a contraction of each flower and then a bundle of flowers have coalesced to create one complex flower mass, curiously more or less reduplicating an original flower form.. The males consist of four stamens and little else. The females appear as three styles, each divided into two chunky stigmas which form the ends of the future developing horns of the fruit. When eventually the fruit ripens it explodes and the six black seeds inside are flung out.

I stood before a flowering plant in March and tried to understand all the numerous insects attracted by the smell to feed on the nectar - bees, wasps, hover flies, and other flies large and small. But other insects were there which were either feeding on the nectar seekers or were sucking the sap of the leaves. Amongst these latter were reddy brown 'squash bugs', which I did not recognise. The St. Andrews cross pattern on the back and the very long proboscis shows them to be 'bugs'. After much book-searching I concluded they were the 'box bug' (Latin - *Gonocerus acuteangulus*). In England it is a listed endangered species. It is only known from Box Hill and the neighbouring area. But in France it is much more common. In England it is found in the summer only on box. In France it has been found on a variety of trees and shrubs. But my specimens were on box.

These observations seem at first trite. The thinking person will reflect on why these distributions and differences exist. Many thousands of years ago, the population of box must have been more or less continuous across southern England and Europe. And with it the box-bug also. The populations became divided and the bug changed habits in one or other land and the box became scarce in England. I find this reflection on the immensity of time and slowness of change awesome. Mankind had nothing to do with it.

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