Volume 8 
Number 12 
The Plant World 
. & iftaffa^ine of popular ^Sotanp 
DECEMBER, 1905 
WILHELM HOFMEISTER* 
(With Portrait.) 
By Professor K. Goebel, 
University of Munich. 
Among the men who, in the nineteenth century, laid the founda¬ 
tions of the botany of to-day, Wilhelm Hofmeister is not only the 
most prominent, but, through his whole life long, was the most 
phenomenal. In contrast to other countries, as for example Eng¬ 
land, scientific activity is in Germany almost always confined to, 
or at least stands in close relation to, the Lhiiversity. Hofmeister, 
however, never studied at a University, and he did not even have 
the “ classical education ” of the gymnasium. He carried on his 
most important researches while he was a bookdealer, and as he 
himself told me, the only time he had in which to prosecute the 
epoch-making studies embodied in his “ Vergleichenden Unter- 
suchungen ” was between the hours of four and six in the morn¬ 
ing in summer. Even thus, he did more qualitatively and quanti¬ 
tatively than any of his contemporaries although he lived but 
fifty-three years, and his end was overshadowed by heavy misfor¬ 
tune. Let us now look at the leading facts of this remarkable life. 
Hofmeister was born on the eighteenth of May, 1824, in Leip¬ 
zig, where his father carried on his business as a commission 
bookdealer. From his father, who was also a student of sys¬ 
tematic botany, the son inherited a love for the natural sciences. 
But no one thought he would take up science as a life work. 
* Authorized translation by F. E. Lloyd. 
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