The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Nepenthes \Ne*pen"thes\, n. [NL., fr. Gr. ?. See Nepenthe.]
1. Same as Nepenthe. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
2. (Bot.) A genus of climbing plants found in tropical areas
of India, Malaya, Australia, 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.
[1913 Webster]