the TRIMERAL SYSTEM in BIOLOGICAL TAXONOMY - universala ...

order — from morphology, habits, habitat, region, and
(alas!) also substituted by proper names. The trouble is that
such typifying particulars usually are rather limited in
number, whereas the species may run into scores. This is
particularly true for plants and animals on the lower rungs of
the evolutionary ladder. Or, if there are sufficient
characteristics to choose from, more often than not they are
commonly shared by several species. Or, such
characteristics may be short-lived or be just too particular,
because they are linked to sex, season, age. Also, a typical
trait may be quite hidden from view, and appear only on
very close inspection (microbiology!). So, the biologist often
faces a dilemma and will resort to nonsensical words
(treated under Rule 7).
In view of these difficulties it is utopian to suppose one can
and must always find the exclusive characteristic, and
set it down in the specific name. Therefore we should
radically shift the helm by prescribing that, when the few
really prominent and exclusive characteristics have been
judiciously allotted, a list be made of all possible other
characteristics. Then, the as yet unnamed members of the
group (= those in need of renaming) will receive them
according to an arbitrary distribution of the characteristics,
such as the alphabetical order. Moreover, since Uniespo
(as well as Esperanto) is an agglutinative language, there
are usually several ways to combine the elements of a given
specific compound word, making synonyms feasible and, in
this respect, even desirable. Besides which, a meaningful
epitheton — even if erroneous — is a lot easier to
remember!
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The only really important consideration here is to make
sure that a given species carry a characteristic name
attached to no other species within the same genus, even
though eventually all the members of that generic group
may lay claim to the very same characteristic !