The BBC's Tony Smith reports from the Natural History Museum

Voyages of Discovery will run at the Natural History Museum until the spring of next year.

A bottle of vinegar recovered from Cook's Endeavour

It traces the epic sea journeys of the 18th and 19th Centuries and the men who went on them. And it recalls some of the extraordinary animals and plants that caused so much astonishment when news of their existence was brought home.

The museum became the depository for many of the botanical, entomological, geological and zoological specimens, collected on the voyages. It is these that form the centrepiece of the exhibition, together with related artworks, photographs, prints and drawings.

Evolution and chocolate

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Visitors can see a first edition of Darwin's Origin of Species and the actual specimens - beetles, fish, fossils and finches - he brought back from the Galapagos Islands where he undertook his research on evolution.

Another star exhibit is the very Theobroma cacao bean that physician Sir Hans Sloane brought back from his 17th Century voyage to Jamaica.

The museum became the depository for the specimens brought back on many famous voyages

"From this bean, he made milk chocolate for the very first time," says exhibition researcher Paul Bowers.

"He had noticed that the locals in Jamaica were boiling up the beans in water. He found that bitter and nauseous and so he tried other ways of taking it. He boiled it in milk and sugar."

Set in a modern design space, Voyages of Discovery takes the visitor on an historical journey using dramatic sound effects and lighting.

The exhibition analyses the impact the voyages have had on current scientific thinking. It also looks forward to future exploration in outer space and in the deep oceans.

"...an animal as large as a greyhound, of a mouse colour and very swift."