Hofmeister described the process of fertilization in non-flowering plants as an alternation of sexual and asexual generations in the mosses, ferns, horsetails and liverworts. He showed that asexual generation propagated by means of spores, altemating with one in which spermatozoids unite with ova. Hofmeister's researches led him to the revolutionary conclusion that all green land plants undergo a regular alternation of dissimilar generations in their complete life histories. Digital facsimile from the Internet Archive at this link.

Hofmeister revised and expanded his work, and in its expanded form it was translated into English by Frederick Currey as On the germination, development, and fructification of the higher cryptogamia, and on the fructification of the coniferae (London: Ray Society, 1862). Digital facsimile of the 1862 edition from the Internet Archive at this link.