Crataegus oliveriana [Dum.-Cours.] Bosc

A shapely small tree with the habit of the common hawthorn, but not so tall; young shoots grey, downy. Leaves 1 to 2 in. long, often as wide; three- or five-lobed, the basal lobes deep; grey with down on both sides, especially beneath, remaining downy until they fall, even on the upper side; stalks 1⁄2 to 11⁄4 in. long. Flowers white, 5⁄8 in. across, in compact corymbs about 2 in. across. Calyx and flower-stalk very woolly. Fruits about 1⁄4 in. long, egg-shaped, black-purple, at first hairy, abundant.

Native of S.E. Europe. This rather striking thorn has by some authors been placed under C. pentagyna, to which it is, no doubt, closely allied. But, as represented at Kew, it differs plainly from it in the small fruits, in the deeper, more finely toothed lobes of the leaf, in the abundant and more persistent down, and in the entire or less deeply toothed stipules. It is, I think, undoubtedly the thorn mentioned by Loudon under the second synonym given above and figured by Lindley in Bot. Reg., t. 1933.