Crossword 537

ACROSS

1. Exposure to the action of air (8)

5. Enclosed plantations of fruit or nut trees (8)

10. Areas of comparatively great elevation (7)

12. Work done for a customer, especially in maintenance of equipment (7)

13. Stretch of land (5)

14. Delicate (7)

15. Having more trees and shrubs (7)

16. _____latte is a soft Italian blue-veined cheese (5)

19. Decayed (6)

22. One to whom a lease is granted (6)

24. Consequence (7)

25. Material made up of tiny rounded grains of rock, especially quartz (4)

26. Desert-dry (4)

28. Legally expelled from a building (7)

30. Fruit of the Malus domestica tree (6)

33. Extremely bad smell (6)

36. Large English draught horse breed (5)

39. Give up (a project or course of action) (7)

40. Tropical tree whose fruit pulp yields an orange dye used as a food colouring (7)

41. More advanced in years (5)

42. Butcher’s chopper (7)

43. Teaching; instruction (7)

44. Type of truck with hinged side panels (8)

45. Volatile gas from which a green fuel can be produced (8)

DOWN

1. Rock formations that contain enough water to supply wells (8)

2. Dependent (7)

3. Relating to stretching (7)

4. Ejected (from office) (6)

6. Make a sound like that of dry leaves in the breeze (6)

7. Collective term for low ground-cover plants with no woody stems (7)

8. Dried grapes (7)

9. Fortified wines originally from Spain (8)

11. Any bird of the wetland Rallus genus (4)

17. Iconic African bird, Struthio camelus (7)

18. Occupier of a small piece of arable land with a dwelling, especially in Scotland (7)

20. Of a plant, to sprawl over the ground or a support (5)

21. Swellings at places where leaves are attached to stems (5)

22. Goes ahead of others (5)

23. Pig (5)

27. Stable, well-adjusted (8)

29. Included at no extra cost (6,2)

31. Dummy medicine administered during drug trials (7)

32. Salad plants with crisp, curly leaves, related to chicory (7)

34. Morocco’s northernmost port city (7)

35. Zero number or quantity (7)

36. Snorted during sleep (6)

37. Indian (prefix) (4)

38. Coarse; uninhibited (6)