A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony

It appeared as Part Three of Appendix to the first twenty three volumes of Edward's Botanical Register, the first two parts being indices of previous volumes of Edwards's Botanical Register, of which Lindley was editor.

According to Helen Hewson, the woodcuts are of high quality, but the plates "do not measure up to the standard of contemporary illustration".

[2] "A Sketch of the Vegetation of the Swan River Colony" represents only the second attempt to provide a flora for the colony, the first being Stephan Endlicher's 1837 Enumeratio plantarum, a Latin work of which only one installment was published.

[3][4] Thus there were at the time a great many undescribed species awaiting publication — speaking of the (now defunct) order Stylidaceae, Lindley remarks "In Brown's prodromus forty-six species only are named for all New Holland... but I possess from Swan River alone at least forty well marked species, and there are some of Baron Hugel's with which I am unacquainted".

[4] Working primarily from the collections of James Drummond, Lindley was able to publish around 280 new taxa, many of which remain current.