Dying off

I was wandering through the art school part of the Polytechnic today as I had some work to do over that side when I took the scenic route out over the river leith and around the back of the College of Education buildings.
Supprisingly there is a lot of plants and greenery. This was the one of the groups of ferns that seemed to be dying off.

(I'm not sure if they were being sprayed, it's a natural phase, or they were actually dying, but most of them seemed to still have bits of green on them)