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.