Factfinder’s crossword - The Scotsman 18/02/2012

ACROSS

8 A place where silk is obtained from silkworm cocoons (8)

9 Satirical work (1516) by Sir Thomas More (6)

10 An epic poem by Virgil (6)

11 Small reed organ, similar to a harmonium (8)

12 A vaulted entrance to a passageway (4)

13 Group of Greek islands in the Aegean Sea (10)

15 A small sturgeon of the Danube basin and the Caspian Sea (7)

17 Czech composer (1824-84), who created the opera, The Bartered Bride (1866) (7)

20 An ornamental fern (Adiantum), with fine footstalks (10)

22 The hub or central part of a wheel, through which the axle passes (4)

24 Card game, a kind of patience (8)

26 To protrude or project (biol) (6)

27 Sword-shaped (6)

28 Citizen of a north African country (919,595 sq miles; pop about 37 million), independent since 1962 (8)

DOWN

1 A widespread perennial plant with pink or red flowers (6)

2 A labiate plant with fragrant, pale lilac flowers (8)

3 An unnecessary outcry, or low spirits (10)

4 British overseas territory of about 150 islands in the Atlantic (20.5 sq miles; pop about 65,000) (7)

5 Large Hebridean island, the site of MacCulloch’s Tree, a fossil tree discovered in 1819 (4)

6 Industrial city north of Lake Erie in Canada (pop about 370,000), founded in 1792 (6)

7 A hardy breed of cattle that originated in central France (8)

14 A papal treasurer (10)

16 Country in south-east Asia (198,190 sq miles; pop about 70 million), occupied by the Japanese in the Second World War (8)

18 Celtic system of succession by a previously elected member of the family (8)

19 A Highland reiver or freebooter (7)

21 William __ (c1460-c1520), Scottish poet who wrote Lament for the Makaris (6)

23 Fresh and youthful (poet) (6)

25 The holm oak (4)

Last week’s solution:

Across: 1 Obscurantism, 8 Atoll, 9 Decameron, 11 Niamey, 12 Honey-dew, 14 Autotheism, 15 Oslo, 18 Arci, 10 Divination, 21 Netsukes, 23 Daniel, 25 Norwegian, 26 Alain, 27 Internuncios.

Down: 1 Onomastic, 2 Salients, 3 Urdu, 4 Archonship, 5 Temper, 6 Sprod, 7 Saint Adamnan, 10 Newfoundland, 13 Perihelion, 16 Scimitars, 17 Kalahari, 20 Eugene, 22 Turin, 24 Anon.