It's actually float* - which is a pointer to a float (hn's formatting can eat these sometimes)

example:

    float* f = GetF();
    // In a C world, you rely on the documentation to tell you how long f is valid for. 
    SomeFunc(*f);

    // We _know_ this is safe.
    std::unique_ptr<float> f = GetF();
    SomeFunc(*f.get());