Pyrus glabra Boiss.

A tree 15 to 20 ft high, with often spine-tipped branches; young shoots at first covered with grey wool, becoming glabrous by summer. Leaves 11⁄2 to 4 in. long, 1⁄3 to 3⁄4 in. wide, linear-lanceolate, long-pointed, slightly round-toothed or quite entire, green on both sides and quite glabrous almost from the very first on both sides; stalk 1⁄3 to 11⁄2 in. long. Flowers 1 in. across, white, produced in a cluster of five to eight; flower-stalks and the inner face of sepals more or less woolly. Fruits roundish.

Native of Persia. In Decaisne’s observations on this species (Jardin Fruitier, vol. i, t. 11), it is stated that the pips of this pear are pickled in brine by the Persians and eaten. The tree is rare in gardens, where, indeed, it has little to recommend it.

From the Supplement (Vol. V)

Although this rare species does not normally much exceed 20 ft in height in the wild, a specimen in the Arboretum at Nymans, Sussex, has reached 46 × 41⁄4 ft (1985).