diff --git a/pandas/tools/plotting.py b/pandas/tools/plotting.py
index 8168e1367f962..7796a6d8763af 100644
--- a/pandas/tools/plotting.py
+++ b/pandas/tools/plotting.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 from itertools import izip
 
 import numpy as np
+from scipy import stats
 
 from pandas.util.decorators import cache_readonly
 import pandas.core.common as com
@@ -11,8 +12,8 @@
 from pandas.tseries.period import PeriodIndex
 from pandas.tseries.offsets import DateOffset
 
-def scatter_matrix(frame, alpha=0.5, figsize=None, ax=None, grid=False,
-                   **kwds):
+
+def scatter_matrix(frame, alpha=0.5, figsize=None, ax=None, grid=False, **kwds):
     """
     Draw a matrix of scatter plots.
 
@@ -36,6 +37,51 @@ def scatter_matrix(frame, alpha=0.5, figsize=None, ax=None, grid=False,
 
     for i, a in zip(range(n), df.columns):
         for j, b in zip(range(n), df.columns):
+            if i == j:
+                # Deal with the diagonal by drawing a histogram there.
+                if diagonal == 'hist':
+                    axes[i, j].hist(df[a])
+                elif diagonal == 'kde':
+                    y = df[a]
+                    gkde = stats.gaussian_kde(y)
+                    ind = np.linspace(min(y), max(y), 1000)
+                    axes[i, j].plot(ind, gkde.evaluate(ind), **kwds)
+                axes[i, j].yaxis.set_visible(False)
+                axes[i, j].xaxis.set_visible(False)
+                if i == 0 and j == 0:
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_ticks_position('left')
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_label_position('left')
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_visible(True)
+                if i == n - 1 and j == n - 1:
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_ticks_position('right')
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_label_position('right')
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_visible(True)
+            else:
+                axes[i, j].scatter(df[b], df[a], alpha=alpha, **kwds)
+                axes[i, j].yaxis.set_visible(False)
+                axes[i, j].xaxis.set_visible(False)
+
+                # setup labels
+                if i == 0 and j % 2 == 1:
+                    axes[i, j].set_xlabel(b, visible=True)
+                    axes[i, j].xaxis.set_visible(True)
+                    axes[i, j].xaxis.set_ticks_position('top')
+                    axes[i, j].xaxis.set_label_position('top')
+                if i == n - 1 and j % 2 == 0:
+                    axes[i, j].set_xlabel(b, visible=True)
+                    axes[i, j].xaxis.set_visible(True)
+                    axes[i, j].xaxis.set_ticks_position('bottom')
+                    axes[i, j].xaxis.set_label_position('bottom')
+                if j == 0 and i % 2 == 0:
+                    axes[i, j].set_ylabel(a, visible=True)
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_visible(True)
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_ticks_position('left')
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_label_position('left')
+                if j == n - 1 and i % 2 == 1:
+                    axes[i, j].set_ylabel(a, visible=True)
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_visible(True)
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_ticks_position('right')
+                    axes[i, j].yaxis.set_label_position('right')
             axes[i, j].scatter(df[b], df[a], alpha=alpha, **kwds)
             axes[i, j].set_xlabel('')
             axes[i, j].set_ylabel('')
@@ -84,15 +130,14 @@ def scatter_matrix(frame, alpha=0.5, figsize=None, ax=None, grid=False,
                 axes[i, j].set_yticklabels(ticks)
                 axes[i, j].yaxis.set_ticks_position('right')
                 axes[i, j].yaxis.set_label_position('right')
-
             axes[i, j].grid(b=grid)
 
     # ensure {x,y}lim off diagonal are the same as diagonal
-    for i in range(n):
-        for j in range(n):
-            if i != j:
-                axes[i, j].set_xlim(axes[j, j].get_xlim())
-                axes[i, j].set_ylim(axes[i, i].get_ylim())
+    #for i in range(n):
+    #    for j in range(n):
+    #        if i != j:
+    #            axes[i, j].set_xlim(axes[j, j].get_xlim())
+    #            axes[i, j].set_ylim(axes[i, i].get_ylim())
 
     return axes
 
@@ -326,6 +371,38 @@ def _get_xticks(self):
 
         return x
 
+class KdePlot(MPLPlot):
+    def __init__(self, data, **kwargs):
+        MPLPlot.__init__(self, data, **kwargs)
+
+    def _get_plot_function(self):
+        return self.plt.Axes.plot
+
+    def _make_plot(self):
+        plotf = self._get_plot_function()
+        for i, (label, y) in enumerate(self._iter_data()):
+            if self.subplots:
+                ax = self.axes[i]
+                style = 'k'
+            else:
+                style = ''  # empty string ignored
+                ax = self.ax
+            if self.style:
+                style = self.style
+            gkde = stats.gaussian_kde(y)
+            sample_range = max(y) - min(y)
+            ind = np.linspace(min(y) - 0.5 * sample_range, 
+                max(y) + 0.5 * sample_range, 1000)
+            ax.set_ylabel("Density")
+            plotf(ax, ind, gkde.evaluate(ind), style, label=label, **self.kwds)
+            ax.grid(self.grid)
+
+    def _post_plot_logic(self):
+        df = self.data
+
+        if self.subplots and self.legend:
+            self.axes[0].legend(loc='best')
+
 class LinePlot(MPLPlot):
 
     def __init__(self, data, **kwargs):
@@ -608,6 +685,8 @@ def plot_frame(frame=None, subplots=False, sharex=True, sharey=False,
         klass = LinePlot
     elif kind in ('bar', 'barh'):
         klass = BarPlot
+    elif kind == 'kde':
+        klass = KdePlot
     else:
         raise ValueError('Invalid chart type given %s' % kind)
 
@@ -670,6 +749,8 @@ def plot_series(series, label=None, kind='line', use_index=True, rot=None,
         klass = LinePlot
     elif kind in ('bar', 'barh'):
         klass = BarPlot
+    elif kind == 'kde':
+        klass = KdePlot
 
     if ax is None:
         ax = _gca()