[R] Controlling size of boxplot when it is added in a plot

[Charilaos Skiadas]

Greetings,

	I am trying to add a boxplot to the bottom of a histogram, right  
between the histogram bars and the x axis. Here is the code I am  
using at the moment (the par line is probably not relevant for our  
discussion):

hs <- hist(x, breaks = 20, plot = F)
par(mar = c(3,3,2,1))
hist(x, breaks = 20, main = NULL, ylim = c(-2, max(hs$counts)))
boxplot(x, horizontal = T, axes = T, add = T, at = -1)

The problem is the following. As it is, the boxplot restricts itself  
to the -1 line. I would like it to occupy both the -1 and the -2  
lines ( I guess more generally I would like to control how much  
vertical space the "embedded boxplot" occupies). I tried to set the  
width parameter in the boxplot, but that seemed to have no effect at  
all.

On an OT note, I haven't seen this way of combining a histogram with  
a boxplot (perhaps I haven't looked really hard). I thought it would  
be useful for my students to see them next to each other, to develop  
a feeling for what histograms might correspond to what boxplots. Is  
there perhaps some reason why I should avoid showing those graphs to  
them like that, that I am not aware of? Or just a reason why I  
haven't seen them combined like this much?

TIA

Charilaos Skiadas
Department of Mathematics
Hanover College
P.O.Box 108
Hanover, IN 47243