The historian of science Peter J. Bowler writes that, as was typical of many 19th century Lamarckians, Henslow did not appear to understand the need to demonstrate that such environmentally induced variations would be inherited by descendants that developed in the absence of the environmental factors that produced them, but merely assumed that they would be.
O historiador da ciencia Peter J. Bowler escribiu que, como era típico de moitos lamarckistas do século XIX, Henslow non parecía comprender a necesidade de demostrar que tales variacións inducidas ambientalmente serían herdadas polos seus descendcentes que se desenvolvían en ausencia de factores ambientais que os producían, senón que simplemente asumían que as herdaban.