Across 2 The acronym for the USDA Economic Research Service (3) 3 Any plant of the genus Cannabis; a coarse bushy annual with palmate leaves and clusters of small green flowers; yields tough fibers and narcotic drugs (4) 4 Rhubarb (5) 6 Flowering plant with two cotyledons; the stem grows by deposit on its outside (5) 7 Any spiny succulent plant of the family Cactaceae native chiefly to arid regions of the New World (6) 8 A starch made by leaching and drying the root of the cassava plant; the source of tapioca; a staple food in the tropics (6) 9 _ _ _ _ is an east Asian grain that bears six to fifteen seed heads, similar to wheat's single seed head, on alternating sides of a single stalk. Grown throughout China as a food crop, _ _ _ _ is harvested at the end of autumn when its seeds have ripened. Quality _ _ _ _ seed is full, large, round, and white. Also known as Job's Tears. (4) 11 Sow thistles (7) 14 Any of a number of tropical vines of the genus Dioscorea many having edible tuberous roots (3) 15 European strong-scented perennial herb with grey-green bitter- tasting leaves; an irritant similar to poison ivy (3)

Down 1 White-flowered annual European herb bearing triangular notched pods; nearly cosmopolitan as an introduced weed (9,5) 4 Climbing palm of Sri Lanka and southern India remarkable for the great length of the stems which are used for Malacca canes (6) 5 Mould (5) 8 Tiny leafy-stemmed flowerless plants (4) 9 Lettuce with long dark-green leaves in a loosely packed elongated head (3) 10 Old World vine with lobed evergreen leaves and black berrylike fruits (3) 12 Tall annual cereal grass bearing kernels on large ears: widely cultivated in America in many varieties; the principal cereal in Mexico and Central and South America since pre-Columbian times (4) 13 Genus of Eurasian spiny shrubs: gorse (4)