Darwin’s plant specimens stored for 200 years to go on public display

Opuntia Cacti specimens collected by Darwin in the Galapagos, next to illustrations of the plants drawn by his friend, John Stevens Henslow. Photograph: Jessica Keating / University of Cambridge

Plant specimens collected by Charles Darwin on the voyage of the Beagle have been unearthed in an archive at Cambridge University.

The rare specimens, which have been stored in the archives of the Cambridge University herbarium for nearly 200 years, were given by Darwin to his teacher and friend Prof John Stevens Henslow, the founder of Cambridge University Botanic Garden.