Darwin's researches led to a meeting on 23 November with Charles James Fox Bunbury, in which he discussed the geographical distribution of plants and animals, particularly in the Galapagos islands where they strikingly showed "a South American character as it were stamped on them all, while nearly all the species are peculiar." As Bunbury recalled, "He avowed himself to some extent a believer in the transmutation of species, though not, he said, exactly according to the doctrine either of Lamarck or of the "Vestiges". But he admitted that all the leading botanists and zoologists, of this country at least, are on the other side." Darwin was familiarising the "most rising naturalists" with the idea, and on 6 December enjoyed having Hooker, Edward Forbes, Hugh Falconer, and George Robert Waterhouse visit Down for dinner and "raging discussions".