--- a/scripts/plot/private/__errplot__.m
+++ b/scripts/plot/private/__errplot__.m
@@ -53,7 +53,7 @@
     elseif (strcmp (fmt.linestyle, "#~>"))
       ifmt = "boxxy";
     else
-      print_usage ();
+      ifmt = "matlab";
     endif
 
     hg = hggroup ("parent", p);
@@ -67,6 +67,13 @@
       hl = __line__ (hg, "color", fmt.color);
     endif
 
+    if (index (ifmt, "matlab"))
+      ifmt = "yerr";
+      if (! strcmp (fmt.linestyle, "none"))
+        set (hl, "linestyle", fmt.linestyle);
+      endif
+    endif
+
     ## FIXME -- note the code below adds the errorbar data directly as
     ## ldata, etc properties of the line objects, as gnuplot can handle
     ## this.  Matlab has the errorbar part of the plot as a special line