Also solah, and erron. SOLAR. [Urdū and Bengālī solā = Hindī sholā: see SHOLA.] A tall leguminous swamp-plant (Æschynomena aspera or paludosa) of India; the pith of this employed in making light hats. Used attrib. with hat, helmet, topee.
(a) 1848. trans. Hoffmeister’s Trav. Ceylon, etc. vii. 248. With only a shirt and a ‘solah’ hat.
1857. Lady Canning, in Hare, Two Noble Lives (1893), II. 255. [The mounted volunteers] with sola helmets on their heads.
1901. Times, 25 May, 8/6. Instead of the uncomfortable regulation helmet they are provided with Sóla hats.
(b) 1845. Stocqueler, Handbk. Brit. India (1854), 92. It will be prudent to wear a sola topee, or hat composed of the soft pulp of a tree.
1872. E. Braddon, Life in India, ii. 20. [Where the trees] pour down richly-scented blossoms upon his sola topee.
1900. J. Conrad, in Blackw. Mag., April, 516/1. A solah topi with a green-lined rim.
