This was because Beaufort believed it was important for people to study nature by experiencing it in real life rather than viewing it in representations.
In her Dialogues on Botany, Beaufort considered it important to delay the teachings of the Linnaean system of classification until she had first provided the basis, physiology.
Both Henrietta and Louisa wrote books anonymously in the hope of supporting their family after their father gave up his clerical position and found himself highly indebted.
When the Beaufort family fell into debt, Maria (and her publisher) helped support Henrietta and Louisa, both unmarried, who kept house for their widowed mother.
[1] When her hydrographer brother Francis's confidential diary was decoded, after their deaths, it revealed feelings of guilt he felt over having an incestuous relationship with Henrietta.