FACTFINDER’S CROSSWORD

ACROSS

1 Large housing scheme in eastern Glasgow (pop about 9,000) (11) 9 The oat genus of grasses (5) 10 The end of the world in Norse mythology (8) 12 A poisonous plant, Apocynum (7) 13 A Chinese fruit tree (7) 14 Large stretch of water in south-east Africa (about 11,400 square miles (5) 15 Assume a definite form or plan (4,5) 18 A male hawk (9) 20 The dominant element of a composition (mus) (5) 21 Apparitions, especially of living people (7) 24 American state (57,423 sq miles; pop about 5 million), nicknamed the Yellowhammer State (7) 25 Units of measurement of the power of a lens (8) 26 A measure of five “hundreds” of herrings (5) 27 Large area of peatlands and wetlands in Highland Region (4,7)

DOWN

2 Large desert in north central Chile (about 31,000 sq miles) (7) 3 A herbaceous perennial plant of the rose family (9) 4 A first magnitude star in Orion (5) 5 Wild asses of central Asia (7) 6 An arboreal American tropical edentate (5) 7 Small coastal village in the north-east, founded as a fishing port in 1720 (11) 8 Capital city in southern Europe (pop 1.2 million), known to the Romans as Singidunum (8) 11 Fearn-born Labour politician (1884 1950), who was Prime Minister of New Zealand (1940 - 49) (5,6) 16 US frontiersman (1809 -68), who became a general in the Union army (3,6) 17 Small semicircular moulding round a column (archit) (8) 19 A light breeze (naut) (4-3) 20 Country in south-east Asia (261,789; pop about 55 million), independent since 1948 (7) 22 A small gazelle (5) 23 A variety of durra from which sugar is prepared (5)