diff --git a/src/recipes.jl b/src/recipes.jl
index 3b1703b8..468acf0d 100644
--- a/src/recipes.jl
+++ b/src/recipes.jl
@@ -145,7 +145,7 @@ end
 @recipe function f(::Type{Val{:vspan}}, x, y, z)
     n = div(length(x), 2)
     newx = vcat([[x[2i - 1], x[2i - 1], x[2i], x[2i], NaN] for i = 1:n]...)
-    newy = repeat([-Inf, Inf, Inf, -Inf, NaN], outer=div(length(x),2))
+    newy = repeat([-Inf, Inf, Inf, -Inf, NaN], outer = n)
     linewidth --> 0
     x := newx
     y := newy
@@ -763,7 +763,7 @@ end
 
 @recipe function f(::Type{Val{:barhist}}, x, y, z)
     h = _make_hist(
-        (x,),
+        tuple(plotattributes[:orientation] == :horizontal ? y : x),
         plotattributes[:bins],
         normed = plotattributes[:normalize],
         weights = plotattributes[:weights],
@@ -777,7 +777,7 @@ end
 
 @recipe function f(::Type{Val{:stephist}}, x, y, z)
     h = _make_hist(
-        (x,),
+        tuple(plotattributes[:orientation] == :horizontal ? y : x),
         plotattributes[:bins],
         normed = plotattributes[:normalize],
         weights = plotattributes[:weights],
@@ -791,7 +791,7 @@ end
 
 @recipe function f(::Type{Val{:scatterhist}}, x, y, z)
     h = _make_hist(
-        (y,),
+        tuple(plotattributes[:orientation] == :horizontal ? y : x),
         plotattributes[:bins],
         normed = plotattributes[:normalize],
         weights = plotattributes[:weights],
diff --git a/src/shorthands.jl b/src/shorthands.jl
index 1417cc7d..59275610 100644
--- a/src/shorthands.jl
+++ b/src/shorthands.jl
@@ -57,10 +57,7 @@ Plot a histogram.
 julia> histogram([1,2,1,1,4,3,8],bins=0:8)
 ```
 """
-@shorthands histogram
-histogram(x; kw...) = plot(x, []; kw..., seriestype=:histogram)
-histogram!(x; kw...) = plot!(x, []; kw..., seriestype=:histogram)
-histogram!(plt, x; kw...) = plot!(plt, x, []; kw..., seriestype=:histogram)
+@one_arg_shorthands histogram
 
 """
     barhist(x)
@@ -68,10 +65,7 @@ histogram!(plt, x; kw...) = plot!(plt, x, []; kw..., seriestype=:histogram)
 
 Make a histogram bar plot. See `histogram`.
 """
-@shorthands barhist
-barhist(x; kw...) = plot(x, []; kw..., seriestype=:barhist)
-barhist!(x; kw...) = plot!(x, []; kw..., seriestype=:barhist)
-barhist!(plt, x; kw...) = plot!(plt, x, []; kw..., seriestype=:barhist)
+@one_arg_shorthands barhist
 
 """
     stephist(x)
@@ -80,10 +74,7 @@ barhist!(plt, x; kw...) = plot!(plt, x, []; kw..., seriestype=:barhist)
 Make a histogram step plot (bin counts are represented using horizontal lines
 instead of bars). See `histogram`.
 """
-@shorthands stephist
-stephist(x; kw...) = plot(x, []; kw..., seriestype=:stephist)
-stephist!(x; kw...) = plot!(x, []; kw..., seriestype=:stephist)
-stephist!(plt, x; kw...) = plot!(plt, x, []; kw..., seriestype=:stephist)
+@one_arg_shorthands stephist
 
 """
     scatterhist(x)
@@ -92,7 +83,7 @@ stephist!(plt, x; kw...) = plot!(plt, x, []; kw..., seriestype=:stephist)
 Make a histogram scatter plot (bin counts are represented using points
 instead of bars). See `histogram`.
 """
-@shorthands scatterhist
+@one_arg_shorthands scatterhist
 
 """
     histogram2d(x,y)