\Ne*pen"thes\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ?. See {Nepenthe}.]
1. Same as {Nepenthe}. --Milton.
2. (Bot.) A genus of climbing plants found in India, Malaya,
   etc., which have the leaves prolonged into a kind of stout
   tendril terminating in a pitcherlike appendage, whence the
   plants are often called pitcher plants and monkey-cups.
   There are about thirty species, of which the best known is
   Nepenthes distillatoria. See {Pitcher plant}.