Why were certain Southwest Australian plants privileged as beautiful, whilst others were considered of no consequence in the aesthetic imagination of colonial European botanists, settlers and visitors? A response to this rather complex question is prompted by a reading of the first substantial published European account of the flora of Western Australia, John Lindley's 'A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony' (hereafter referred to as 'A Sketch'), published in three instalments between 1839 and 1840. Lindley's document represents an early European endeavour to demystify the plant life of the Swan River. Through the publication, the vegetation of the colony was ushered into the global marketplace by a particular style of value-laden scientific writing.