[wp-hackers] & function name?

[Stephen Rider]

I'm looking at the get_pages function, (which isn't documented at  
all, darnit....) and am confused by the way it is defined.

post.php, line 1059:

function &get_pages($args = '') {

What is the meaning of the ampersand at the beginning of the function  
name?  According to the PHP docs, function names start with a letter  
or understroke.  Is this a typo?

Stephen