Nicolas II, prince ESTERHAZY (1765-1833), Hungarian prince, great art collector, and patron of Joseph Haydn. 2 L.A.S., Eisenstadt and Vienna May-October 1811, to botanist Louis-Claude Noisette; 1 1/2 pages in-8, and 2 pages in-4 bordered with stenciled palmettes (torn at corner with loss of a few words). Interesting letters on the development of the gardens at Eisenstadt. [Prince Esterhazy undertook the complete renovation of the Eisenstadt estate, creating sumptuous gardens in the English style, with vast greenhouses containing a large collection of 60,000 varieties; for this he called on the botanist Louis-Claude Noisette (1772-1849), who became famous throughout Europe]. Eisenstadt May 21. He had the funds requested by Noisette remitted. "Your trees and plants have arrived safely for the most part, but the Ericas [ericales] and delicate plants have succumbed, the last small shipment of the same did not succeed, the whole was suffocated. Your brother, who will have marked out for you what is missing, awaits from day to day your announcement of this shipment for hot greenhouses, and the disposition for the school and amenity trees that have yet to arrive. The Laurus sassafras Magnolia Tripetala, all the Rhododendrons greet you and bloom. [...] As for the Pinus Palustris, it's too crazy a price; you have to let them mature. Among others, I'd like a Laurus Cynamomum, mine having died through Daras's primitive negligence"... Vienna October 13th. He deplores the inconvenience caused by his latest shipment of plants: "it's a misfortune; I believe, as you do, that the man was clumsy and not suited to directing such a task, and I am convinced that the season was too advanced, that the excessive heat and the rains must have done harm, especially to cuttings that were too young, and to delicate species [...] we will try to sew up the holes [and to] replace the dead ones. April is the right [month] to start, because tired individuals have time to recover and enter the hyvers quarter healthy. Besides, I am far from incriminating you, and you must be persuaded that the good opinion I have of you is too strong to change my opinion of you. Your brothers will send you a catalog of the fruit and forest trees that are missing, and we will recruit them in due course. Until then, you will do well to send us branches to graft the wild fruit trees. [...]. I regret the loss of Laurus Cinamomum and Ixora Coccinea, I especially want to get them but a little stronger. Write me what you could send me in cold greenhouses, and for spring in warm and temperate greenhouses"...