A small tree with unarmed branches forming a rounded head. Leaves entire, ovate or oval-oblong, blunt at the apex, or with a short, abrupt point, up to 3 in. long, 1 to 11⁄2 in. wide, covered when young with white, cottony down, which afterwards falls away and leaves them shining and glabrous above. Flowers white, in very short corymbs. Fruits globose or top-shaped, greenish yellow when ripe, spotted with brown. By some curious error this tree was long regarded as a native of N. America; but no true pear is indigenous to the New World. It is probably from the Levant, and no doubt a hybrid between P. amygdaliformis and P. nivalis. It differs from the former in its entire leaves.