my %h = ( foo => 'bar' );
my @a = ( \%h );
print "worked fine\n" if $a[0]{foo} eq 'bar';

##</code><code>##

my %h = ( foo => 'bar' ); 
my @a = ( \%h ); 
my $r = \@a; 
print $r->[0]{foo}, "\n"; # $r[0] won't work since @r doesn't exist.