Medlar
a much-branched spinous tree. The leaves are obovate or oblonglanceolate, entire or serrulate, pubescent beneath; the flowers white, with a woolly calyx; the fruit half an inch or an inch in diameter; depressed at the top. It is eaten raw, but not till it is rotten. The large-flowered medlar is Pyrus (mespilus) grandiflorus; the medlar of Japan, Eriobotrya japonica; the medlar of Surinam is one of the Sapotaceæ, and the West Indian medlar Mimuspos elengi.