Vertical adjustment of symbols relative to text in legend

Question

Is there a way to vertical align the symbols in a legend relative to the first line of the corresponding text?

plot(table(iris$species))
legend('right',c('A','B','long\ntext'), fill = colors(3))

The labels A and B are vertically aligned to the corresponding symbols, but the symbol corresponding to the the third label (long text with a line-break between the words) is aligned to the middle of this label.

I would prefer if the symbol would be aligned to the first line of the label (i.e. long).

Answer 1

The easiest way is to put a blank line before the text. That way, the first line of text will be aligned with the box:

pie(table(iris$Species), col = palette.colors(3, "Pastel 1"), cex = 2)
legend('right',c('A','B',' \nlong\ntext'), fill = palette.colors(3, "Pastel 1"), 
       cex = 2, box.lty = 0, y.intersp = 0)

Answer 2

iris <- iris
ggplot(iris, aes(x=Species, fill=Species)) + 
  geom_bar() + 
  scale_fill_manual(values=colors(3), labels=c('A', 'B', 'long\ntext')) +
  theme(legend.position="right", legend.justification=0.5)