You need to make your variable into a factor and specify the order.

> mymonths <- c("December", "March")
> factor(mymonths)
[1] December March
Levels: December March
> factor(mymonths, levels=month.name)
[1] December March
12 Levels: January February March April May June July August September
October ... December
> month.name
 [1] "January"   "February"  "March"     "April"     "May"       "June"
"July"
 [8] "August"    "September" "October"   "November"  "December"
> month.abb
 [1] "Jan" "Feb" "Mar" "Apr" "May" "Jun" "Jul" "Aug" "Sep" "Oct" "Nov" "Dec"
>

On Fri, Jan 28, 2011 at 4:53 PM, <Kurt_Helf@nps.gov> wrote:

>
> Greetings
>     Though I have months in chronological order in my data table, the data
> were sampled every other month (i.e., February, April, June, August,
> October, December), every time I try to plot them (on the x-axis) they are
> plotted in alphabetical order.  What am I missing?
> Cheers
> Kurt
>
> ***************************************************************
> Kurt Lewis Helf, Ph.D.
> Ecologist
> EEO Counselor
> National Park Service
> Cumberland Piedmont Network
> P.O. Box 8
> Mammoth Cave, KY 42259
> Ph: 270-758-2163
> Lab: 270-758-2151
> Fax: 270-758-2609

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