DICT (1824-1877), German botanist, was born at Leipzig on May 24, 1824, was professor of botany at Heidelberg, and then at Tubingen. His first work was on the distribution of Coni ferae in the Himalayas, but his attention was soon turned to the sexuality and origin of the embryo of Phanerogams, and he finally settled the question of the origin of the embryo from an ovum, as against the prevalent pollen-tube theory of M. J. Schleiden. His study of the embryology of Bryophytes and Pteri dophytes led to his accounts of the germination of the spores and fertilization in Pilularia, Salvinia, Selaginella. His important Ver gleichende Untersuchungen der Keimung, Ent f altung and Frucht bildung hoherer Kryptogamen and der Samenbildung der Co niferen, which appeared in 1851 (Eng. trans., 1862) demonstrated the life-story of liverworts, mosses, ferns, equiseta, rhizocarps, lycopodiaceae and even gymnosperms, and the analogy between these higher cryptogams and the conifers. It is the typical work of an heroic age of plant-morphology. Hofmeister died at Lin denau, near Leipzig, on Jan. 12, 1877.