Tree vigorous, upright, attaining a height of 20 to 50 ft., the branches becoming glabrous. Leaves ovate-oblong, sometimes ovate, 3 to 5 in. long, rounded at the base and rarely subcordate or cuneate, long-acuminate, sharply setose-serrate, with partially appressed seratures; when young, villous, or lower surface cobwebby, but becoming glabrous. Flowers white, borne in 6 to 9 flowered umbellate-racemose clusters; glabrous or somewhat tomentose and borne on slender pedicels; calyx-lobes triangular-ovate and long-acuminate, 1/4 to 1/2 in. long, glandulose-denticulate; petals oval, short-clawed, 3/4 in. long; stamens about 20; styles 4 or 5, glabrous. Fruit subglobose, russet-brown; stalk slender; calyx deciduous. This oriental pear has been referred to _P. sinensis_ Lindley (not Poiret) by botanists and horticulturists since its introduction in Europe nearly one hundred years ago until 1915 when Rehder, discovering that the true _P. sinensis_ had been lost to cultivation, proposed the name _P. lindleyi_ for one group and _P. serotina_ for another group of Chinese pears passing under Lindley's original species, _P. sinensis_. This species comes from central and western China, where the fruits are used for food under the name, with that of other brown-fruited species, of _tang-li_. American pomologists are interested in the type species as a possible source of blight-resistant stocks for varieties of the common pear. Stocks of this species, however, grown on the Pacific slope have not proved satisfactory because difficult to bud, and very susceptible to leaf-blight, and because they are not as resistant to pear-blight as an ideal stock should be. Rehder, an authority on oriental pears, gives two botanical varieties. His var. _stapfiana_ differs from the type in bearing pyriform fruits; leaves with less appressed serratures; and petals with attenuate claws. So far as now appears it is of no greater value to pomology than the type. The other botanical variety which Rehder describes, var. _culta_, is of great importance in pomology and must have detailed consideration. =PYRUS SEROTINA CULTA= Rehder =1.= Rehder _Prod. Amer. Acad. Arts & Sci._ =50=:233. 1915. =2.= _P. sinensis_ Hort. Not Lindley nor Poiret. =3.= _P. japonica_ Hort. Not Thunberg. =3.= _P. sieboldi_ Carrière _Rev. Hort._. 110. 1880. =5.= _P. sinensis culta_ Makino _Tokyo Bot. Mag._ =22=:69. 1908.